Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that another 17 immigrants, whom he described as gang members and "violent criminals," have been deported. The Salvadoran and Venezuelan nationals were taken from US immigration detention at Guantánamo Bay and sent to a prison in El Salvador where more than 200 US deportees already are held, the Guardian reports. Rubio said they're members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs, which the Trump administration has labeled terrorist organizations. "These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens," Rubio said in a statement.
The men were flown to El Salvador on a US military plane. A Salvadoran government video that the BBC describes as "dramatically edited" appears to show them transported by bus to the maximum security prison, where they changed into the standard T-shirts and shorts and had their heads shaven, per the AP. Some of them were made to kneel with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs and their ankles shackled. Rubio thanked the government of President Nayib Bukele for "unparalleled partnership," and Bukele posted that the deportees are "confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists."
Trump added his appreciation in a post, thanking Bukele for giving the men "such a wonderful place to live." El Salvador agreed to take US deportees in exchange for $6 million, per the BBC. Trump's deportations of people to countries other than their own, under a wartime law, still faces court challenges. The administration took the issue to the Supreme Court on Friday. (More deportation stories.)
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