El Salvador Agrees to Accept U.S. Deportees

President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Source: WLRN

On February 3, Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, announced via X an agreement giving the United States permission to outsource part of its inmate population to El Salvador in exchange for an undisclosed fee. The central purpose of this deal is to allow the United States to deport undocumented immigrants whose countries reject deportation flights. Prisoners sent to El Salvador would be kept in the country’s new “CECOT” prisons. These are high-security prisons that have raised many ethical concerns due to prisoners only being allowed out of their cells for thirty minutes per day, only being fed once a day, and the inhumane living conditions prisoners are forced to endure.

This deal comes at the same time that the Trump administration is looking to carry out the nation’s most comprehensive domestic deportation operation ever.  The administration has also committed itself to eliminating birthright citizenship and keeping undocumented children out of schools. Anti-immigrant sentiment was especially prevalent in the lead-up to the recent presidential election. At a campaign event in Michigan, President Trump said, “The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals…’”

This harsh rhetoric seems to be growing in prevalence in American politics, but how do Americans really feel about immigration policy? According to a poll by CBS conducted in June 2024, over six in ten Americans supported mass deportation policies. However, other polls, like one conducted by the Pew Research Center in April 2024, produced opposite results and showed only minority support for mass deportations. Leo Gugerty, a Psychology Professor at Clemson University, argues that the answer lies somewhere in between. He points out the faulty methodologies utilized in both polls. He claims that, while over the last eight years, the margin of Americans’ support for pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants over deportation has decreased, Americans still support pathways to citizenship more. Given already lower support for deportation as a means of dealing with immigration amongst Americans, it will be important to keep an eye on how these mass deportations end up affecting American citizens and how those effects further impact public opinion on addressing immigration.

For Bukele and El Salvador, public opinion is not as big of an issue as seen by Bukele’s monstrous 83% approval rating according to CID Gallup. External opinion does matter, however, given Bukele’s controversial leadership strategies and authoritarian tendencies. This deal allows him to strengthen diplomatic ties with the United States and helps to further legitimize his power. Additionally, Bukele has said the fee (of an undisclosed amount) accompanying the deal will help keep El Salvador’s prison budget sustainable. Not everyone in El Salvador agrees with the deal, however. Secretary General Manuel Flores of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, a leftist opposition party, opposed the agreement, saying it would represent El Salvador accepting a role as America’s “garbage dump.”

This agreement between El Salvador and the United States marks a completely new frontier in the debate over American immigration policy and has very different impacts for the countries involved. For the U.S., the deal serves the Trump administration’s stated efforts to deport all illegal immigrants, which are completely unprecedented and would likely have profound effects on both the American economy and society like a drastic reduction in GDP, loss of labor supply, and an increase in prices. As for El Salvador, a country aiming to bolster its economy and eliminate massive cartels, the deal serves to provide much-needed economic stimulus and diplomatic stability with the United States.