XPost: soc.culture.el-salvador, alt.politics.nationalism.black,    
   lt.politics.trump   
   XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230307160825-02-prison-   
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   Detainees at the Cecot mega-prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on February   
   24, 2023. Office of the President of El Salvador/Getty Images   
      
   El Salvador has agreed to house violent US criminals and receive deportees   
   of any nationality, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday, in   
   an unprecedented – and legally problematic deal – that has alarmed critics   
   and rights groups.   
      
   Rubio unveiled the agreement after meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib   
   Bukele, as part of a tour of several Central American countries intended   
   to consolidate regional support for the Trump administration’s immigration   
   policy.   
      
   “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 Monday.   
      
   The country will continue accepting Salvadoran deportees who illegally   
   entered the US, he said. 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,” he said – referring   
   to two notorious transnational gangs with members from El Salvador and   
   Venezuela.   
      
   In addition, 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 said.   
      
   It is unclear whether the US government will take up the offer, however,   
   with questions around the legality of such moves. Any effort by the Trump   
   administration to deport incarcerated US nationals to another country   
   would face significant legal pushback.   
      
   “The US is absolutely prohibited from deporting US citizens, whether they   
   are incarcerated or not,” Leti Volpp, a law professor at UC Berkeley who   
   specializes in immigration law and citizenship theory, told CNN over   
   email.   
      
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   US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with President Nayib Bukele at his   
   residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, Monday, February 3, 2025.   
   Mark Schiefelbein/AP   
   Bukele later confirmed the agreement with Rubio on X, saying in a post,   
   “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted   
   US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.”   
      
   El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, commonly referred to as CECOT,   
   is the country’s largest and newest prison, with a maximum capacity of   
   40,000 inmates.   
      
   “The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making   
   our entire prison system sustainable,” he added.   
      
   Bukele has been credited with greatly reducing gang violence in the   
   Central American country since launching a sweeping crackdown in 2022 that   
   has seen more than 81,000 people jailed. But while the country’s crime   
   rate has fallen, the treatment of those imprisoned has triggered outrage   
   among human rights organizations who call El Salvador’s prisons inhumane.   
      
   The State Department’s travel advisory for El Salvador also warns that   
   those imprisoned in the country face “harsh” prison conditions, without   
   access to due process.   
      
   “Overcrowding constitutes a serious threat to prisoners’ health and   
   lives,” the advisory says. “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation,   
   potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are   
   inadequate or nonexistent.”   
      
   Those within the Trump administration and the president’s allies have been   
   quick to praise the announcement, with Elon Musk calling it a “great idea”   
   in a post on X. But rights groups condemned the agreement, and critics   
   warned that such a plan could be part of democratic backsliding.   
      
   A prominent Latino advocacy group said it was “a sad day for America” in a   
   statement to CNN following the announcement Monday.   
      
   Roman Palomares, National President and Chairman of the Board of the   
   League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said the group “opposes   
   treating deported non-criminal migrants like cattle who can be shuttled   
   from one country to another without regard to their home of origin.”   
      
   Speaking to CNN before the announcement, Emerson College professor Mneesha   
   Gellman said the US was “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.”   
      
   “It is a bizarre and unprecedented proposal being made potentially between   
   two authoritarian, populist, right wing leaders seeking a transactional   
   relationship,” said Gellman, an international politics scholar. “It’s not   
   rooted in any sort of legal provision and likely violates a number of   
   international laws relating to the rights of migrants.”   
      
   Manuel Flores, general secretary of El Salvador’s leftist Farabundo Martí   
   National Liberation Front party, also decried the move on Monday. “What   
   are we? Backyards, front yards, or garbage dumps?” he said at a press   
   conference, referring to both El Salvador and other Central American   
   countries receiving migrants expelled by the US.   
      
   El Salvador’s mega-prisons   
      
   Bukele’s vast and violent crackdown on gangs has earned admiration from   
   the Trump administration – which has targeted both MS-13 and Tren de   
   Aragua in recent raids.   
      
   Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that violent transnational   
   gangs were taking over American cities, using both gangs as a frequent   
   talking point to justify hardline immigration policies and border   
   security.   
      
   The president signed an executive order last month specifically naming MS-   
   13 and Tren de Aragua, citing their “campaigns of violence and terror in   
   the United States and internationally” as threats to “the stability of the   
   international order in the Western Hemisphere.”   
      
   The orders included a recommendation that the State Department start the   
   process of designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.   
      
   On Friday, the US special envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone   
   hinted at the agreement between the US and El Salvador, saying Tren de   
   Aragua members “will want to go back to Venezuela rather than having to   
   share the prison with the Salvadorean gangs like MS-13. It’s part of what   
   we want to discuss and how President Bukele can help us.”   
      
   Trump’s immigration crackdown   
   The move comes amid a swift immigration crackdown, with wide swaths of the   
   federal government mobilized to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants   
   in the US, and to strip protections for migrants already in the country.   
      
      
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