U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated late Monday that El Salvador’s president has supplied to simply accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, together with violent American criminals now imprisoned in america.
President Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio stated at a signing ceremony for an unrelated civil nuclear settlement with El Salvador’s overseas minister.
“He’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents,” Rubio stated. He had simply met with Bukele at his lakeside nation home outdoors San Salvador for a number of hours.
After Rubio spoke, a U.S. official stated the Trump administration had no present plans to attempt to deport Americans, however stated Bukele’s supply was important. The U.S. authorities can not deport Americans and such a transfer could be met with important authorized challenges.
Rubio was visiting El Salvador to press a pleasant authorities to do extra to fulfill Trump administration calls for for a serious crackdown on immigration amid turmoil in Washington over the standing of the federal government’s primary overseas improvement company.
He arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a U.S.-funded deportation flight with 43 migrants depart from Panama for Colombia. That got here a day after Rubio delivered a warning to Panama that except the federal government moved instantly to cut back or eradicate China’s presence on the Panama Canal, the U.S. would act to take action.
Migration, although, was the principle problem of the day, as it is going to be for the subsequent stops on Rubio’s five-nation Central American tour of Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic after Panama and El Salvador.
President Donald Trump’s administration prioritizes stopping individuals from making the journey to america and has labored with regional international locations to spice up immigration enforcement on their borders in addition to to simply accept deportees from america.
The settlement Rubio described for El Salvador to simply accept overseas nationals arrested in america for violating U.S. immigration legal guidelines is called a “safe third country” settlement. That may imply the U.S. may deport non-Salvadorean migrants to El Salvador.
Officers have prompt this could be an possibility for Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in america ought to Venezuela refuse to simply accept them, however Rubio stated Bukele’s supply was for detainees of any nationality.
Rubio stated Bukele then went additional and stated his nation was prepared to simply accept and to jail U.S. residents or authorized residents convicted of and imprisoned for violent crimes.
Human rights activists have warned that El Salvador lacks a constant coverage for the remedy of asylum seekers and refugees and that such an settlement won’t be restricted to violent criminals.
Manuel Flores, the secretary common of the leftist opposition celebration Farabundo Martí Nationwide Liberation Entrance, criticized the “safe third country” plan, saying it will sign that the area is Washington’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”
The deportation flight Rubio watched being loaded in Panama Metropolis was carrying migrants detained by Panamanian authorities after illegally crossing the Darien Hole from Colombia. The State Division says such deportations ship a message of deterrence. The U.S. has offered Panama with monetary help to the tune of virtually $2.7 million in flights and tickets since an settlement was signed to fund them.
Rubio was on the tarmac for the departure of the flight, which was taking 32 males and 11 girls again to Colombia. It is uncommon for a secretary of state to personally witness such a legislation enforcement operation, particularly in entrance of cameras.
“Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era,” Rubio stated, talking afterward in a close-by constructing. “It impacts countries throughout the world. We recognize that many of the people who seek mass migration are often victims and victimized along the way, and it’s not good for anyone.”
Monday’s deportation flight got here as Trump has been threatening motion in opposition to nations that won’t settle for flights of their nationals from america, and he briefly hit Colombia with penalties final week for initially refusing to simply accept two flights. Panama has been extra cooperative and has allowed flights of third-country deportees to land and despatched migrants again earlier than they attain america.
“This is an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, of mass migration, which is destructive and destabilizing,” Rubio stated. “And it would have been impossible to do without the strong partnership we have here with our friends and allies in Panama. And we’re going to continue to do it.”
His journey comes amid a sweeping freeze in U.S. overseas help and stop-work orders which have shut down U.S.-funded applications concentrating on unlawful migration and crime in Central American international locations. The State Division stated Sunday that Rubio had authorised waivers for sure essential applications in international locations he’s visiting, however particulars of these weren’t instantly out there.
Whereas Rubio was overseas, staffers of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth had been instructed Monday to remain out of the company’s Washington headquarters after billionaire Elon Musk introduced Trump had agreed with him to shut the company.
Hundreds of USAID staff already had been laid off and applications shut down. Rubio advised reporters in San Salvador that he was now the performing administrator of USAID however had delegated that authority so he wouldn’t be operating its day-to-day operations.
The change implies that USAID is now not an unbiased authorities company because it had been for many years — though its new standing will possible be challenged in courtroom — and can be run out of the State Division by division officers.
In his remarks, Rubio careworn that some and maybe many USAID applications would proceed within the new configuration however that the swap was obligatory as a result of the company had turn out to be unaccountable to the chief department and Congress.
On his weekend dialogue with Panama’s president on the Panama Canal, Rubio stated he was hopeful that the Panamanians would heed his and Trump’s warnings on China. Panamanians have bristled at Trump’s insistence on retaking management of the American-built canal, which the U.S. turned over in 1999, though they’ve agreed to tug out of a Chinese language infrastructure and improvement initiative.
“I understand that it’s a delicate issue in Panama,” Rubio advised reporters in San Salvador. “We don’t want to have a hostile and negative relationship with Panama,” he stated. “I don’t believe we do. And we had a frank and respectful conversation, and I hope it’ll yield fruits and result in the days to come.”
However again in Washington, Trump was much less diplomatic, saying: “China’s involved with the Panama Canal. They won’t be for long and that’s the way it has to be.”
“We either want it back, or we’re going to get something very strong, or we’re going to take it back,” Trump advised reporters on the White Home. “And China will be dealt with.”
As he has prior to now, Trump once more criticized the Carter administration for having signed a Nineteen Seventies treaty to cede management of the canal to Panama and stated it was a pact that Panama has since “totally violated.”
“They’ve agreed to certain things, but I’m not happy with it,” Trump stated.
