The Trump administration is in talks with El Salvador regarding a potential agreement that would allow the US to send Venezuelan gang members to be held in El Salvador’s prisons.
During a call with reporters, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the State Department’s special envoy for Latin America, explained that the proposal would involve deporting non-Salvadoran migrants to El Salvador, the AP reported. The deal would also involve sending members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The proposal follows El Salvador’s aggressive crackdown on crime under President Nayib Bukele. Since 2022, Bukele has suspended certain constitutional rights to facilitate mass arrests, leading to the detention of approximately 84,000 individuals, most of whom remain imprisoned without formal sentencing. The crackdown has resulted in a sharp decline in gang-related violence in El Salvador, a country that previously struggled with widespread criminal activity.
“If we commit to reviving this agreement and include ... members of the Tren de Aragua gang, I bet they're going to want to go back to Venezuela instead of dealing with the Mara prisons in El Salvador,” said Claver-Carone.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently on a Latin American tour, having recently visited Panama and is scheduled to arrive in El Salvador on Monday. Rubio is expected to urge Latin American leaders to cooperate with the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants, particularly those with criminal histories, back to their countries of origin.
The administration is also working to revive the Safe Third Country program, a policy first implemented during Trump’s initial term. The program required asylum seekers to apply for protective status in countries deemed “safe” that they passed through before reaching the US The goal was to reduce the number of individuals granted asylum in the US by encouraging them to seek protection in other nations en route.
