GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — President Donald Trump mentioned Tuesday that he was exploring whether or not he can transfer ahead with El Salvador’s provide to just accept and jail violent American criminals within the “most severe cases” at the same time as he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio each say it raises clear authorized points.
Rubio reached an uncommon settlement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele a day earlier that the Central American nation would settle for U.S. deportees of any nationality, together with Americans and authorized residents who’re imprisoned for violent crimes.
“I’m just saying if we had a legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace. “I don’t know if we do or not, we’re looking at that right now.”
Hours earlier at a information convention in San Jose with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, Rubio mentioned there have been “obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution.”
Rubio famous that it was “a very generous offer. No one’s ever made an offer like that — and to outsource, at a fraction of the cost, at least some of the most dangerous and violent criminals that we have in the United States.”
MARK SCHIEFELBEIN through Getty Photographs
Rubio mentioned immigration with Chaves — a Trump administration precedence — as America’s prime diplomat additionally faces main upheaval on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth that has left many on the assist company and the State Division fearful for his or her jobs.
Whereas Rubio has been on a five-country go to in Central America this week, USAID staffers and Democratic lawmakers had been blocked from its Washington headquarters Monday after Elon Musk, who’s working a budget-slashing Division of Authorities Effectivity, introduced Trump had agreed with him to close the help company.
Hundreds of USAID staff already had been laid off and applications worldwide shut down after Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on overseas help after taking workplace. Rubio later supplied a waiver for life-saving applications, however confusion over what’s exempt from stop-work orders — and worry of shedding U.S. assist completely — continues to be freezing assist and growth work globally.
“I would say if some organization is receiving funds from the United States and does not know how to apply a waiver, then I have real questions about the competence of that organization,” he advised reporters. “Or I wonder whether they’re deliberately sabotaging it for purposes of making a political point.”
He additionally mentioned he has “long supported foreign aid. I continue to support foreign aid. But foreign aid is not charity.” He famous that each greenback the U.S. spends should advance its nationwide curiosity.
Amid the turmoil again dwelling, Rubio and Chaves spoke of immigration and safety challenges that Costa Rica faces because it has develop into not only a transit nation for migrants headed to the U.S. but additionally a vacation spot as 1000’s of Nicaraguans since that nation cracked down on opposition beginning in 2018.
Costa Rica additionally has struggled towards hovering drug-related violence throughout the previous two years. “We also understand that we need to strengthen our fight against international organized crime,” Chaves mentioned, including that Rubio had supplied to proceed U.S. assist by way of waivers to permit that overseas help to proceed flowing.
After his assembly with Chaves, Rubio arrived in Guatemala Metropolis to fulfill with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo.
A day earlier, Rubio met in San Salvador with Bukele, who confirmed the deportation provide in a publish on X, saying El Salvador has “offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.”
Bukele mentioned his nation would settle for solely “convicted criminals” and would cost a charge that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
The State Division describes El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous.” Its nation info webpage says, “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”
El Salvador has lived below a state of emergency since March 2022, when the nation’s highly effective road gangs went on a killing rampage. Bukele responded by suspending elementary rights like entry to attorneys, and authorities have arrested greater than 83,000 individuals with little to no due course of.
In 2023, Bukele opened a large new jail with capability for 40,000 gang members and reduce prisoners’ meals to twice a day. Prisoners there don’t obtain visits, and there are not any applications making ready them for reinsertion into society after their sentences and no workshops or academic applications.
El Salvador, as soon as some of the harmful international locations on this planet, closed final 12 months with a document low 114 homicides, newfound safety that has propelled Bukele’s hovering reputation within the nation of about 6 million residents.
Migration has been the highest situation for Rubio on his journey spanning Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. However he was dogged by different modifications that the Trump administration has been making quickly after taking workplace.
Rubio advised reporters in San Salvador that he was now the appearing administrator of USAID however had delegated that authority so he wouldn’t be working its day-to-day operations. In a letter Rubio despatched to lawmakers that was obtained by The Related Press, he mentioned the State Division would work with Congress “to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices and missions of USAID.”
He mentioned the processes on the company, which has been hit by Trump’s freeze on all overseas help, aren’t nicely coordinated and that “undermines the President’s ability to carry out foreign relations.”
“In consultation with Congress, USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law,” Rubio wrote.
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AP reporters Christopher Sherman in Mexico Metropolis and Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.
