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Marco Rubio announces 'extraordinary' immigration agreement with El Salvador: 'They will accept immigrants of any nationality and dangerous US criminals'

In addition, the US and El Salvador reached an agreement for the development of nuclear energy.

El secretario Marco Rubio se reúne con el presidente Nayib Bukele

Secretary Marco Rubio meets with President Nayib BukeleAFP / Press Office of the Presidency of El Salvador

The United States and El Salvador reached a historic immigration and deportation agreement, as announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

According to Rubio, El Salvador agreed to receive illegal immigrants of any nationality, including those who have committed crimes in U.S. territory and, in addition, agreed to receive U.S. criminals in its high-security mega prisons, used in the Central American country to incarcerate gang members involved in violent crimes with harsh sentences.

"[President Bukele] has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world," 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."

At a press conference, Rubio confirmed that the U.S. will send the gang members of Tren de Aragua, a dangerous Venezuelan gang financed by Nicolás Maduro's socialist regime, to El Salvador's mega-prisons.

Bukele referred to the agreement as a way to "outsource" the United States prison system, which would generate reduced costs for the federal government and extra revenue for the Central American country. Trump himself had mentioned this desire in a speech last week, when he suggested he was interested in sending U.S. criminals overseas to save taxpayers money.

"We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system. We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable," said the Salvadoran president, who then joked about accepting former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez into one of his maximum security prisons.

Before the official announcement, Bukele claimed that the agreement with the United States was of "historic" caliber and that it was "unprecedented in the history of the relationship, not only of the United States with El Salvador, but I think in Latin America."

In addition to the immigration agreement, which was the priority of the visit, the United States and El Salvador signed an important nuclear energy development agreement through the Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation (NCMOU).

"This lays the groundwork for a broader strategic relationship to build ties between nuclear energy experts, industry and cutting-edge researchers in the United States and El Salvador," said the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador.

El Salvador and the U.S. confirm their good relations

This agreement highlights the good relationship between President Donald Trump and Bukele, a conservative leader who, despite criticism from some international organizations, is among the most popular presidents in the world, especially due to his security policy, which reduced crime in El Salvador, once the most violent country in the world, to historic lows.

The news comes as Rubio makes his first tour as secretary of state in the Western Hemisphere, just a day after his visit to Panama, a country with which he also had a tough talk in terms of immigration, and before his agenda for Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic; countries that the Trump administration could also persuade (or pressure) to join togeher in their effort to reduce massive illegal immigration.

The U.S. secretary of state arrived in El Salvador just after seeing a U.S. -funded deportation flight with 43 immigrants departing Panama for Colombia, whose president, Gustavo Petro, a regular Trump critic, has reluctantly accepted deportation flights with Colombian immigrants from the US.

"Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era," Rubio said, speaking later in a nearby building where he witnessed the flight. "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."

Panama, which is also in dispute with Washington over the Panama Canal, was much more responsive and cooperative than Colombia, accepting the landing of flights of deportees from third countries. This situation made Rubio's previous trip to El Salvador a success, persuading Panama to also curb the traffic of illegal immigrants through its country.

“This is an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, of mass migration, which is destructive and destabilizing,” Rubio said. “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.”

For now, after Rubio's successful trips in Panama and El Salvador, the Trump administration remains on track to fulfill its agenda of curbing the immigration crisis through mass deportations and deterring illegal immigration.

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