El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on crime transformed his country from one of the world's most dangerous to one of the safest in South America. His strategy was simple: build a mega-prison and lock up the criminals.
Bukele’s crime-fighting credo has expanded to the U.S. as President Trump is rounding up violators and shipping them out. For felonious immigrants who came in illegally, it’s then back to their country of origin with a stop, if necessary, at the prison in Guantánamo, Cuba. Trump is also considering an offer by the El Salvadoran president to jail them at his Terrorism Confinement Center.
Bukele’s prison is ruled with an iron fist. Inmates have their heads shaved and are handcuffed together by the hundreds when outside of their cells. There are no TVs or cellphones, and visitors are not allowed. The president made completion of the prison a top priority, having promised to end the gang violence that wracked his country, and was heralded by the citizens for making El Salvador safe again.
Resistance by other countries to take back the criminals deported by Trump evaporated when he threatened them with stiff tariffs. President Gustavo Petro at first refused to allow planes filled with deportees to land in Colombia, then offered his own plane to transport them after Trump got tough. Mexico and Canada also resisted the repatriation, as well as Trump’s request to stop the flow of fentanyl and other deadly drugs flowing through their countries. His tariff stance softened when Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum stationed 10,000 troops along the southern border, and Justin Trudeau agreed to cooperate.
Trump noted that he has received offers from several countries to jail U.S. detainees for a fee. “It’s a very small fee compared to what we pay to private prisons,” Trump said. “If we could make a deal to get these animals out of our country, l would do it in a heartbeat. We’re talking about people who hit old ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat and people who take out a gun and shoot you for no reason or push you in front of a subway. If we could put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody who made a relatively small fee to maintain these people, I’d be glad to do it.”
Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, has assigned 10 detectives to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and offered the use of his county’s jails to hold prisoners for deportation. His cooperation is a far cry from jurisdictions controlled by Democrats who have vowed to impede Trump’s deportation efforts.
Border Czar Tom Homan blasted Aurora, Colorado officials for leaking information that compromised an ICE raid on members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The operation aimed to apprehend at least 100 gang members, but due to the leak, only one member was arrested. “This is a dangerous job for the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol and all the DOJ agencies,” Homan said. “To have that type of interference puts our officers at great risk.” The Border Czar warned that individuals impeding federal operations “may find themselves in a pair of handcuffs.”
Since January 20, the Trump administration has deported about 17,000 illegal immigrants to 121 countries. Millions more will follow, the president said of the aliens allowed in by Joe Biden.