The Trump administration has reached an arrangement with El Salvador under which the U.S. will pay $6 million for the Central American country to detain approximately 300 suspected gang members from Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua. This deal marks one of the earliest instances in which El Salvador will take in migrants from the United States.
This agreement came to fruition after discussions between President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, focusing on housing these individuals in El Salvador’s famously severe prison system. Since 2022, Bukele’s administration has been clamping down on gang activities and violence, resulting in over 84,000 arrests—oftentimes lacking due process.
The documents outlining this arrangement do not illustrate how the U.S. identified these 300 individuals as members of Tren de Aragua, a gang that’s been a frequent subject of Trump’s public addresses and labeled by him as a terrorist group. “El Salvador confirms its readiness to take custody of these individuals for one year, awaiting a decision from the United States on their long-term status,” stated a memo from El Salvador’s foreign affairs ministry.
This accord follows a broader arrangement between the U.S. and El Salvador last month to accommodate migrants detained in the U.S. Interestingly, the U.S. administration has suggested that El Salvador could possibly house American citizens, though current laws prevent the deportation of U.S. citizens to foreign countries.
Further discussions between Rubio and Bukele delved into the specifics of this transfer, noting that the cost will be about $20,000 per prisoner for one year. Additionally, a State Department document mentions a potential allocation of $15 million to accommodate more members of the notorious gang within El Salvador.
The El Salvadoran documentation also indicated an agreement to accept two individuals identified as members of the MS-13 gang. Originally formed by Salvadoran migrants in the United States, this gang had grown substantially in El Salvador prior to Bukele’s intensified anti-gang measures. One of the men, Cesar Eliseo Sorto Amaya, had previously been convicted in El Salvador for double homicide before he was caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally. The other individual had been charged in President Joe Biden’s era with holding a significant leadership role within the MS-13 organization.
