Trump thanked Bukele to help the USA with the deportation of “criminal” migrants. “You come to us and we appreciate this,” said the right -wing populist Republican to the address of the Salvadorian president, who describes himself as the “coolest dictator in the world”.
For his part, Bukele confirmed the support of his country for the United States in the deportations. “We know that you have a problem with crime and terrorism and that you need help,” said the 43-year-old. “We are a small country, but if we can help, we’ll do it.”
The United States has deported more than 250 migrants to El Salvador since Trump’s office, where they were arrested in a notorious high -security prison for serious criminals. The US government accuses them of being members of the two Latin American gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, although there is often no evidence of this. The Trump government put both organizations on the list of foreign “terrorist organizations” in February.
In particular, the deportation of the Salvadorian immigrant Kilmar Ábrego García, who is married to a US citizen, causes a stir. His alleged gang membership is unproven, and he actually enjoyed legal protection in the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States instructed the Trump government to work for its release from the prison in El Salvador and for his return to the USA. The Trump government rejects this.
Bukele now said in the White House that he couldn’t do anything in that case. “How can I bring him back to the United States? Should I smuggle it into the USA? Of course I won’t do that,” the president replied when asked about a journalist. “How should I smuggle a terrorist into the USA? I don’t have the power to bring him back to the USA.”
Trump’s vice chief Stephen Miller said that the deportation of Ábrego García was “lawful”. For him there is no way back to the United States.
Bukele takes a hard hand in his country against criminal gangs and had a huge prison known under the abbreviation Cecot. He offered Trump to lock prisoners from the USA in El Salvador for a fee.
The US President said on Monday that he wanted “as many” criminal migrants “as possible” to El Salvador. He even asked Bukele whether he could build more prisons for it.
Trump also brought the deportation of criminal US citizens into conversation again at the meeting, even if this is not legally possible. “We also have criminals from our homeland, who hit people in front of subways, the older women hit the back of the head with baseball bats,” said Trump. “I would like to take them into the group to refer them to the country.”
Bukeles with hard bandages guided fight against criminal gangs in El Salvador is highly controversial. The murder rate in the Central American country has dropped greatly, but civil rights organizations denounce massive violations of human rights.
Trump, on the other hand, has declared a tough action against the irregular immigration into one of the main goals of his term and promised the largest deportation campaign in US history. The President’s approach, however, repeatedly against legal hurdles.
On Monday, a US federal judge temporarily stopped plans by the Trump government to legally deprive hundreds of thousands of migrants from Latin America who have been in the USA. The judge argued that the government’s approach is based on an incorrect interpretation of immigration law. Trump’s plans are affected by more than 530,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, who are threatened with deportation.
