The Trump administration is working on an asylum agreement with El Salvador. The deal would allow the United States to deport migrants who are not from El Salvador — including possibly Venezuelan gang members — to the small Central American nation to seek asylum, CBS News reported, citing two sources familiar with the talks.
Under the terms of the deal, El Salvador would be designated a “safe third country” where non-Salvadoran migrants who come to the U.S. could request asylum. One potential plan would allow the administration to send suspected members of Tren de Aragua, a gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison more than a decade ago, to El Salvador. As economic conditions severely deteriorated under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, more than 8 million people have fled Venezuela to other parts of Latin America and to the U.S., including members of Tren de Agua.
Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance seriously exaggerated the threat posed by migrant gang members throughout the 2024 campaign, including making unsubstantiated claims that gangs were “taking over cities,” in order to argue for stricter immigration policies.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has led a harsh crackdown on gangs in El Salvador, imprisoning more than 75,000 individuals, including thousands of innocent people under a suspension of civil liberties called a state of exception, which was prompted by brutal gang murders that occurred over one weekend in March 2022.
Conditions in Salvadoran prisons are extreme. One former detainee told PBS that where he was held, 70 people were placed in a single cell, but only around 10 of them were members of a gang. Last week, a Salvadoran court sentenced three minors to five years in prison after they were seen on video using gang signs connected with the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang.
Human rights organization Cristosal has documented abuse, torture and death in Salvadoran prisons under the state of exception. In 2022, the U.S. State Department said it had identified credible reports of “significant human rights issues” in El Salvador including “unlawful or arbitrary killings, forced disappearances; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention” as well as issues with censorship, government corruption and interference in the judiciary process.
Trump spoke on the phone with Bukele on Thursday where, according to the White House, the leaders discussed “working together to stop illegal immigration and crack down on transnational gangs like Tren de Aragua.”
Earlier this week, the administration began sending deportees to Guatemala and El Salvador via military flights. These kinds of deportations are usually done with chartered passenger planes, not military transport.
“Deportation flights have begun,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, cheering the move. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences.”
Amid the deportations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic during his first foreign trip as the country’s top diplomat.
“Mass migration is among the most consequential issues of our time,” Rubio wrote in a memo that was sent on his first day in office, which was obtained by NBC News. “The era of mass migration must end.”
Trump has promised to deport some 11 million people currently undocumented in the U.S.
From Rolling Stone US
