Editor's Note: This photo has been updated.
An unnamed U.S. official on Tuesday told the Associated Press there are no current plans to deport American citizens to El Salvador after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio heralded Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s “unprecedented, extraordinary migratory agreement” with the United States.
Rubio met with Bukele “to discuss the possibility of deporting suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador,” CNN reported. That meeting, Rubio told reporters Monday, ended “in an act of extraordinary friendship to our country" — including a place to send criminal American citizens.
In addition to accepting Salvadoran deportees, Bukele said his "mega-prison" Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CENTRO) will “accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a criminal from any nationality, be they MS-13 or Tren de Aragua and house them in his jails.”
READ MORE: 'Call somebody who cares': GOP senator slammed over response to 'friends who are upset'
El Salvador’s Bukele also "offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents," Rubio said Monday
As AP reports, "Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying El Salvador has ‘offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.’ He said his country would accept only ‘convicted criminals’ and would charge a fee that ‘would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.’”
An unnamed U.S. official told the AP “the Trump administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens, but said Bukele’s offer was significant.”
“The U.S. government cannot deport American citizens and such a move would be met with significant legal challenges,” the AP report adds.
READ MORE: 'Trump got rolled here': President mocked after backing down from Trudeau
For more information on Bukele, read this 2022 New Yorker profile.
Read the Associated Press report here.
READ MORE: 'Clown': GOP senator raked over the coals as she rubber stamps controversial Trump nominee