El Salvador President Offers To Jail Illegal Immigrants Caught In America And Even Violent American Citizens
In a controversial agreement, El Salvador has offered to accept and house violent U.S. criminals, including American citizens, in its already overcrowded prisons. The deal, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb. 3, comes after a meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. The proposal raises serious legal and humanitarian concerns, Reason reported.
As part of the agreement, El Salvador will continue to accept its citizens who have been deported from the U.S. However, President Bukele extended the offer to include any criminal deportee, regardless of nationality, including notorious gang members such as MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. El Salvador would also accept dangerous American criminals, both U.S. citizens and legal residents, to be housed in its penitentiaries, CNN reported.
Rubio boasted that the deal was an act of “extraordinary friendship.” He praised Bukele for his willingness to house criminals at a fraction of the cost for the U.S.
Despite all this pomp and circumstance, the legality of sending American citizens to foreign prisons is questionable. According to immigration law experts, deporting U.S. nationals, especially convicted criminals, to another country would be unconstitutional.
El Salvador’s prison system is already operating well beyond capacity and the conditions are known to be harsh. The country’s largest prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), was designed to hold 40,000 inmates but has become notorious for its severe overcrowding. It is also said to lack of basic amenities such as sanitation, potable water, and temperature control, PBS reported.
Human rights organizations have raised concerns over the inhumane conditions in El Salvador’s prisons and critics warn that this agreement could be a step backward in terms of human rights and could potentially mark a troubling precedent for the U.S. government.
