Amna Nawaz:
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed the deal online, saying the U.S. would pay a fee and calling it an opportunity for America to — quote — “outsource” part of its prison system.
Legally, the U.S. government cannot deport American citizens. It’s not clear how this exchange would work or hold up to legal challenges. Bukele, using emergency powers, has led a brutal crackdown on criminal gangs in El Salvador, building one of the largest prisons in Latin America to house many of the 80,000 people swept up in arrests.
The U.S. State Department has described the overcrowded prisons there as harsh and dangerous. In the Oval Office today, President Trump said he would send Americans to prisons abroad in a heartbeat if he can do it legally.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: If we could get these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people, because you know what, these are criminals. You call them hardened criminals. We don’t want these people in our country either.