Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said after meeting the Salvadoran leader at his lakeside country house outside San Salvador for several hours.

“We can send them and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said of migrants of all nationalities detained in the United States. “He’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”

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 “only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee” that he said “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

Elon Musk, the billionaire working with Mr. Trump to remake the federal government, responded on his X platform, “Great idea!!”

San Salvador, El Salvador— Late Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that El Salvador’s president has promised to receive and imprison deportees from the United States of any nationality, including criminals with American citizenship who are now imprisoned in the United States. President Nayib Bukele confirmed the offer in a social media post, stating that El Salvador was eager to rehouse deportees and American convicts in a two-year-old “mega-prison” he had constructed as a powerful symbol of his fight on criminal gangs. Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio stated after spending several hours with the Salvadoran leader at his lakeside country estate outside San Salvador. “We can send them and he will put them in his jails,” according to Rubio

After Rubio spoke, a US official stated that the Trump administration has no current intentions to deport American citizens, but that Bukele’s offer was noteworthy. The United States government cannot deport American citizens, and any attempt to do so would face substantial legal difficulties. Last month, CBS News claimed that El Salvador has agreed to accept US deportations of “criminal illegal migrants from any country,” including members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.

Rubio was in El Salvador to urge a friendly administration to do more to meet President Trump’s demands for a significant immigration crackdown. The State Department refers to El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous.” According to the current country information portal, “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.” Unlike many of the country’s prisons, the massive facility known as CECOT, which Bukele mentioned after his talks with Rubio, is more than half-empty, according to the French news agency AFP, with a capacity of 40,000 inmates but only about 15,000 currently estimated to be incarcerated there.

CECOT, formally known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, is enclosed by high concrete walls and located on the edge of a jungle some 45 miles southeast of San Salvador. According to the AFP, convicts at the prison are only allowed to leave their cells for court hearings, which are held by video link, or for 30 minutes of daily exercise in an enclosed hall.

Rubio landed in San Salvador just after observing a US-funded deportation airplane carrying 43 migrants depart from Panama for Colombia. That comes a day after Rubio warned Panama that unless the government moved swiftly to eradicate China’s presence at the Panama Canal, the United States would take action. Migration, however, was the main topic of the day, as it will be for Rubio’s remaining visits on his five-nation Central American trip of Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic following Panama and El Salvador. His journey coincides with a period of upheaval in Washington over the future of the government’s major foreign development agency.

The Trump administration prioritizes preventing people from traveling to the United States and has collaborated with regional countries to increase immigration enforcement at their borders as well as accept deportees from the United States. A “safe third country” deal, as stated by Rubio, allows El Salvador to receive foreign nationals jailed in the United States for breaching immigration rules. Officials have hinted that this could be a possibility for Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in the United States if Venezuela refuses to accept them, but Rubio said Bukele’s offer was for detainees of any nationality.

Human rights groups have warned that El Salvador lacks a coherent policy for dealing with asylum seekers and refugees, and that such an agreement may not only apply to violent criminals. The secretary general of the Marxist opposition party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, Manuel Flores, opposed the “safe third country” concept, stating that it would signify that the region is Washington’s “backyard to dump garbage.”

Following his discussion with Bukele, Rubio and his Salvadoran colleague signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen US-El Salvador civil nuclear cooperation. The text might lead to a more formal agreement on nuclear power and medical collaboration between the United States and a number other countries.

The deportation flight that Rubio saw being loaded in Panama City was transporting migrants apprehended by Panamanian officials after illegally crossing the Darien Gap from Colombia. The State Department claims that such deportations send a message of deterrence. Since the funding deal was finalized, the United States has provided Panama with about $2.7 million in flights and tickets. Rubio was on the tarmac when the airplane, carrying 32 men and 11 women, took off for Colombia. It is unusual for a secretary of state to personally observe such a law enforcement operation, especially in front of cameras.

The deportation flight that Rubio saw being loaded in Panama City was transporting migrants apprehended by Panamanian officials after illegally crossing the Darien Gap from Colombia. The State Department claims that such deportations send a message of deterrence. Since the funding deal was finalized, the United States has provided Panama with about $2.7 million in flights and tickets. Rubio was on the tarmac when the airplane, carrying 32 men and 11 women, took off for Colombia. It is unusual for a secretary of state to directly see such a law enforcement action, particularly in front of cameras.

He has taken action against countries that refuse to accept planes from the United States, and he momentarily penalized Colombia last week for initially refusing to accept two aircraft. Panama has been more accommodating, allowing flights carrying third-country deportees to land and returning migrants before they reach the United States. His travel coincides with a widespread halt in US foreign assistance and stop-work orders that have resulted in the closure of US-funded initiatives aimed at combating illegal migration and crime in Central American countries. The State Department said on Sunday that Rubio had approved waivers for certain vital programs in the nations he is visiting, but specifics were not immediately available.

While Rubio was out of the country, officials at the United States Agency for International Development were told Monday to avoid the agency’s Washington headquarters after Musk claimed that Mr. Trump had agreed to shut it down. Thousands of USAID staff have already been laid off, and programs have been shut down. Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID, but he had delegated that responsibility so that he would not be in charge of the organization’s daily operations. The shift implies that USAID is no longer an autonomous government agency, as it had been for decades – though its new status will most likely be challenged in court – and will be managed by State Department officials.

In his remarks, Rubio emphasized that while some, if not all, USAID activities would continue in the new configuration, the change was necessary because the organization had grown unaccountable to the executive branch and Congress. During his weekend talk with Panama’s president about the Panama Canal, Rubio expressed hope that the Panamanians will heed his and President Trump’s concerns against China. Panamanians have objected to Mr. Trump’s insistence on retaking control of the American-built canal, which the United States handed over in 1999, while agreeing to withdraw from a Chinese infrastructure and development program.

“I understand that it’s a delicate issue in Panama,” Rubio told reporters in San Salvador. “We don’t want to have a hostile and negative relationship with Panama,” he told reporters. “I do not believe we do. And we had a candid and courteous chat, which I hope will bear fruit and produce results in the coming days. But back in Washington, Mr. Trump was less diplomatic, declaring, “China is involved in the Panama Canal.” They won’t be around for long, and that’s how it needs to be.” “We either want it back, we’re going to get something very strong, or we’re going to take it back,” he told reporters at the White House. “And China will be dealt with.”