El Salvador "volunteers" to receive criminals deported from the US

After talks with the President of El Salvador on February 3, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Central American country has offered to detain "dangerous criminals" from anywhere in the world who are deported by Washington.

On February 3, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right) met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at his residence on Lake Coatepeque, El Salvador. (Source: Reuters)

On his first foreign trip as US Secretary of State, Mr Rubio is seeking support from countries in the region for the Trump administration's efforts to deport large numbers of migrants.

Secretary Rubio met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and other senior officials for nearly three hours. The two sides agreed to expand the agreement to accept deported Salvadoran citizens.

In particular, according to Mr. Rubio, Washington can send "any illegal immigrant considered a dangerous criminal or a dangerous criminal who is a US citizen" to be detained in El Salvador's prisons.

In a post on the X platform, President Bukele also suggested that the US "rent part of its prison system".

"We are ready to receive convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our super prison for a fee. This fee is relatively low for the US but it means a lot to us, making our prison system self-sustaining," Mr. Bukele said, referring to El Salvador's terrorist detention center.

The Trump administration sees President Bukele as an important ally in its efforts to control migration in the region.

The Salvadoran leader has previously launched a tough security crackdown that has resulted in the arrest of more than 80,000 criminals and a dramatic drop in homicides. Washington credits the policy with reducing the number of Salvadorans attempting to illegally enter the United States.

Since taking office on January 20, President Donald Trump has stepped up deportations of migrants to Latin American countries, including using military planes to repatriate them.

On February 3, Mr. Trump also ended the mechanism that protected hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the US from the risk of deportation. Or last week, the leader announced the expansion of the detention facility at the naval base of this country in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) to be able to accommodate up to 30,000 people.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/el-salvador-xung-phong-tiep-nhan-toi-pham-bi-truc-xuat-tu-my-303111.html