Rubio says El Salvador has offered to accept deportees from U.S. of any nationality

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits El Salvador to discuss unprecedented migratory agreement and immigration enforcement.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says El Salvador's President has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

President Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Mr. Rubio said.

"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.”

Mr. Rubio was visiting El Salvador on Monday (February 3, 2025) to press a friendly government to do more to meet Mr. Trump’s administration demands for a major crackdown on immigration amid turmoil in Washington over the status of the government’s main foreign development agency.

Mr. Rubio arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a U.S.-funded deportation flight with 43 migrants leave from Panama for Colombia. That came a day after Mr. Rubio delivered a warning to Panama that unless the government moved immediately to reduce or eliminate China's presence at the Panama Canal, the U.S. would act to do so.

Migration, though, was the main issue of the day as it will be for the next stops on his 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 people from making the journey to the United States and has worked with regional countries to boost immigration enforcement on their borders as well as to accept deportees from the United States.