The Trump administration seems eager on the concept of sending convicted immigrants and U.S. residents to El Salvadoran prisons.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X Tuesday morning that he had a “very productive meeting” with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele concerning his dedication to “accept and incarcerate criminals from any country including” these from “gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.”
“In an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country, President Bukele offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals, including US citizens and legal residents,” he wrote.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio (proper) throughout his assembly with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on Feb. 3.
Rubio’s assembly comes after Bukele prolonged to President Donald Trump a suggestion to accommodate convicted immigrants and U.S. residents in his newly constructed detention heart for a “relatively low” charge.
“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee,” Bukele wrote on X Monday.
CECOT, El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Middle, has a most capability of 40,000. Critics have already flagged the jail for civil rights abuses, citing strict management and isolation of people who find themselves incarcerated.
Bukele was elected president in 2022 and has been credited with decreasing gang violence and restoring security in El Salvador. However his success hinges on the mass incarceration of greater than 81,000 individuals.
Human rights teams have documented excessive overcrowding and torture in El Salvador’s prisons, and entry to meals, ingesting water, and well being care is typically nonexistent.
Trump tried to ascertain an identical settlement with El Salvador throughout his first time period when the 2 international locations signed the “safe third country” settlement in 2019. Partially, El Salvador agreed to obtain non-Salvadorians detained in america, however the deal was by no means applied as a result of COVID-19.
Loads of purple flags have been raised since Trump started his second time period and began implementing his mass deportation efforts—together with his try to finish birthright citizenship.
However immigration consultants have been pointing to the illegality of transport U.S. residents and immigrants to a different nation.
“The U.S. is absolutely prohibited from deporting U.S. citizens, whether they are incarcerated or not,” Leti Volpp, a legislation professor on the College of California, Berkeley, who focuses on immigration legislation and citizenship principle, advised CNN.
Equally, Trump introduced on Jan. 29 that he’ll home detained immigrants in Guantanamo Bay, the notorious army jail in Cuba that was used to accommodate high-profile terrorists. The jail beforehand housed Haitian immigrants beneath the Bush administration.
The primary group of immigrants was despatched to Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday.
In the meantime, on U.S. soil, sanctuary cities held anti-ICE protests over the weekend, and pro-immigrant companies closed their doorways Monday to honor “Day Without Immigrants.” However in distinction, individuals have been arrested for imitating ICE brokers to harass individuals of colour.
And regardless of experiences about ICE utilizing extreme drive on senior residents, officers are nonetheless selling deportations on social media.
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