In a controversial move, the Trump administration has agreed to financially compensate El Salvador with $6 million to detain approximately 300 individuals purportedly linked to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang for the duration of one year. This is a notable instance where a Central American nation is accepting migrants from the United States as part of an external detention strategy.
Discussions between El Salvador’s leader, Nayib Bukele, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio culminated in the agreement to house these individuals in one of El Salvador’s infamously overcrowded prisons. This is occurring in the wake of a significant crackdown by Bukele’s government, which has seen over 84,000 people incarcerated since 2022, often bypassing standard legal procedures.
The move faces legal challenges, notably from the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward, which filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., preemptively opposing the detention. The lawsuit represents five Venezuelan men currently held in Texas, asserting that they are at an imminent risk of deportation through the Alien Enemies Act.
A potential obstacle to the agreement has surfaced, as U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg recently issued a temporary restraining order, preventing deportations under the relevant Trump proclamation for two weeks. This reprieve allows for a Friday hearing to further examine the case. Amid this legal tangle, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt indicated that flights possibly carrying deportees to El Salvador and Honduras might have departed, which the judge declared must turn back if in the air.
Documents linked to the transfer do not clarify how the Trump administration designated the 300 persons as gang members associated with the Tren de Aragua. Despite this, a memo from El Salvador’s foreign affairs ministry confirms the country’s temporary acceptance of these individuals, pending U.S. directives on their future status.
Previously, the United States and El Salvador struck a broader agreement allowing the Central American country to house migrants detained in the U.S. This undertakings reflect discussions about potentially housing even American citizens, although international laws prevent U.S. citizens from being deported overseas.
The discussions also touched on the logistics and finances involving the incarceration, noting an approximate cost of $20,000 per inmate for the year. Moreover, a State Department document hints at an additional $15 million allocation to facilitate housing more gang-affiliated detainees in El Salvador.
El Salvador has also agreed to take in two men accused of ties to the infamous MS-13 gang, historically seeded by Salvadoran migrants in the U.S. Notably, Cesar Eliseo Sorto Amaya, identified in the arrangement, had been convicted for a double homicide in El Salvador before illegally entering the U.S. The second individual was charged under Biden’s administration as a prominent MS-13 figure.
The emergence of the Tren de Aragua gang is linked to Venezuela’s internal strife and economic collapse last decade, catalyzing an exodus in which millions sought a better life elsewhere. Notwithstanding claims by Venezuelan authorities of dismantling the gang, the Trump administration declared it a “foreign terrorist organization,” elevating its profile in immigration and security debates.
Countries worldwide have reported encounters with members of the Tren de Aragua, despite Venezuela’s dismissive stance about the gang’s influence. President Maduro’s administration has sporadically accepted deportees from the U.S., including around 350 recently returned individuals, amid contentious circumstances.
The government’s characterization of these deportees from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay as gang members lacks substantive backing. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government has so far not commented on this latest bi-national agreement with El Salvador regarding the detention of alleged gang members.
