Trump also signed a proclamation invoking an 18th-century law called the Alien Enemies Act to further target the Tren de Aragua gang.
The Trump administration is set to pay El Salvador $6 million to hold about 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and two alleged members of the MS-13 gang in its prisons for a year. Both gangs have been designated as terrorist organizations.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele recently offered to take in and house criminal illegal immigrants in his infamous prison for a price. The offer was made as part of an agreement between Bukele and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during Rubio’s first diplomatic mission of his term.
“The Republic of El Salvador confirms it will house these individuals for one year, pending the United States’ decision on their long-term disposition,” wrote El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
According to the agreement made between Bukele and Rubio, all incoming prisoners would be imprisoned at El Salvador’s 40,000-inmate “mega-prison” called the Terrorism Confinement Center.
Bukele described the fee rate as being “relatively low for the U.S.” yet high enough to help sustain the prison system, and this instance would set the cost for the United States at about $20,000 per prisoner per year.
One of the MS-13 gang members, Cesar Eliseo Sorto Amaya, was convicted of double homicide in El Salvador before he was caught illegally entering the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The other was charged under the Biden administration with being a high-ranking leader of the MS-13 gang.
Earlier on Saturday, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation invoking an 18th-century law called the Alien Enemies Act to further hasten Tren de Aragua’s (TdA) removal from the United States.
“I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies,” the proclamation read.
By T.J. Muscaro
