El Salvador Agrees to Accept Deportees and Violent Criminals from the US

El Salvador has agreed to receive deportees from the United States of any nationality, along with violent criminals who are US citizens currently imprisoned, in an unprecedented deal that has alarmed critics and rights groups.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the agreement on Monday after meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his visit to several Central American countries to advance the Trump administration's agenda on migration.

"In an act of extraordinary friendship to our country ... (El Salvador) has agreed to the most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world," Rubio told reporters.

The country will continue accepting Salvadoran deportees who illegally entered the US. It will also "accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a criminal from any nationality, be they MS-13 or Tren de Aragua and house them in his jails," Rubio said, referring to two notorious transnational gangs with members from El Salvador and Venezuela.

Additionally, Bukele "has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents," Rubio stated.

Bukele confirmed the agreement on X, stating, "We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee."

"The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable," he added.

Critics had warned that such a plan could indicate democratic backsliding. "The US is essentially proposing to send people to a country that is not the country of origin nor is it necessarily the country that they passed through," said Mneesha Gellman, an international politics scholar and professor at Emerson College.

It is described as a "bizarre and unprecedented proposal being made potentially between two authoritarian, populist, right wing leaders seeking a transactional relationship," Gellman told CNN. "It's not rooted in any sort of legal provision and likely violates a number of international laws relating to the rights of migrants."

CNN has reached out to El Salvadoran officials for further details.

One of the most striking aspects of the deal is that Salvadoran law does not differentiate between alleged gang members and those found guilty of a crime. Under the draconian state of emergency that has ruled the Central American country since 2022, authorities can detain anyone on mere suspicion of gang membership.

Bukele has boasted a high incarceration rate as a method for enhancing security - El Salvador now holds the world’s highest rate - but human rights organizations such as Amnesty International argue that many of the over 80,000 people jailed under the state of emergency are innocent.

This is a developing story.