El Salvador offers to accept US deportees and criminals in 'unprecedented' migrant deal
4 February 2025, 09:52 | Updated: 4 February 2025, 12:16
The US has agreed an "unprecedented" migrant deal with El Salvador, with the country offering to accept deportees from any country - including criminals.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that El Salvador's president had offered to accept deportees of any nationality, including violent American criminals currently imprisoned in the United States.
President Nayib Bukele "has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world," Mr Rubio said.
"He's also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they're US citizens or legal residents."
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Following Mr Rubio's remarks, a US official said the Trump administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens, but said Mr Bukele's offer was significant.
The agreement Mr Rubio described for El Salvador to accept foreign nationals arrested in the United States for violating US immigration laws is known as a "safe third country" agreement.
That would mean the US could deport non-Salvadorean migrants to El Salvador.
Officials have suggested this might be an option for Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in the United States should Venezuela refuse to accept them, but Mr Rubio said Mr Bukele's offer was for detainees of any nationality.
He said Mr Bukele then went further and said his country was willing to accept and to jail US citizens or legal residents convicted of and imprisoned for violent crimes.
Mr Rubio was visiting El Salvador to press the government to do more to meet Trump administration demands for a major crackdown on immigration.
He arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a US-funded deportation flight with 43 migrants leave from Panama for Colombia.
He was on the tarmac for the departure of the flight, which was taking 32 men and 11 women back.
"Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era," Mr Rubio said, speaking afterward in a nearby building.
"It impacts countries throughout the world. We recognise that many of the people who seek mass migration are often victims and victimised along the way, and it's not good for anyone."
