In a startling yet characteristically bold interview with Fox Noticias, former President Donald Trump floated a provocative proposal that would upend traditional American criminal justice frameworks: the potential outsourcing of violent offenders to El Salvador’s controversial mega-prison system.
The centerpiece of this idea? A growing collaboration between Trump-aligned U.S. immigration enforcement and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, known for his iron-fisted crackdown on gang violence.
Trump’s remarks reflect both an admiration for Bukele’s hardline tactics and a broader ideological rejection of what he views as the soft-on-crime policies championed by Democrats in major U.S. cities. The former president cited recent, high-profile incidents of urban violence—assaults in subways, random attacks with blunt objects—as justification for considering radical solutions. “We are looking into it, and we want to do it. I would love to do that,” Trump said, referring to the idea of sending “homegrown” violent offenders abroad.
Trump backs plan to send violent American inmates overseas if El Salvador agrees to take them—says it’s cheaper and smarter! pic.twitter.com/j40qeKpVll
— Robert Gouveia Esq. (@RobGouveiaEsq) April 8, 2025
At the heart of this emerging strategy is El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT—a sprawling high-security facility that has drawn both international condemnation and domestic praise. Designed to house the country’s most dangerous gang members, the prison has become a symbol of Bukele’s zero-tolerance approach to crime, helping drive down El Salvador’s once-notorious murder rate. However, it has also been criticized by human rights organizations for its brutal conditions and lack of due process.
🚨BREAKING: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele just accepted a bunch of criminal aliens into his country from the Trump administration.
– 2 top MS-13 leaders
– 21 most wanted members
– 250 members of Tren de AraguaThey will be held in the El Salvador prison system.
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) March 16, 2025
Trump, however, sees an opportunity in CECOT. Under his leadership, deportation flights to El Salvador increased, and hundreds of criminal suspects—some allegedly affiliated with the Venezuelan-origin gang Tren de Aragua—were redirected to Bukele’s facilities. Trump now suggests expanding this model to include U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes, tapping into a narrative of “restoring safety” by removing threats through any means necessary.
The proposal is likely to inflame the ongoing debate over crime, immigration, and the limits of executive power. Trump’s 2024 campaign continues to hammer the Biden administration over its border and bail policies, portraying them as enablers of lawlessness. By contrast, the partnership with Bukele offers a starkly different vision: one where law and order are restored through aggressive, even extraterritorial, enforcement.
But complications loom. Legal experts are sure to raise constitutional challenges to the idea of sending U.S. citizens to foreign prisons, and the political blowback could be significant. Moreover, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a deported Salvadoran national whose MS-13 affiliation remains unproven—highlights the dangers of acting on questionable intelligence in the name of public safety.
Trump’s flirtation with exporting criminals to foreign prisons isn’t merely a policy trial balloon. It’s a symbolic extension of his broader agenda: uncompromising, unapologetic, and built on a perception that America’s justice system is broken beyond repair. Whether voters rally behind that message—or recoil from it—will shape the next phase of a campaign that’s as much about identity as it is about law and order.
