EL Salvador is to double the size of the world’s biggest prison to house up to 80,000 inmates as President Trump hints he could send “homegrown criminals” to the terrifying compound.
President Nayib Bukele plans to expand the gargantuan Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, that houses some of the country’s most dangerous gangsters.
Prisoners exercise in a cellblock guarded by prison officers at maximum security penitentiary CECOT[/caption]
US military personnel escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported[/caption]
Trump meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday[/caption]
The sprawling site was initially opened in 2023 to house up to a whopping 40,000 inmates during Bukele’s crackdown on El Salvador’s blood-thirsty gangs.
CECOT is currently holding 15,000 people, including hundreds of alleged gang members that Trump recently deported from the US.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told the Wall Street Journal following her talks with Bukele: “We have no plans to bring them back, this is a long-term solution.”
She also revealed the bombshell plans “to double the size”.
Noem added: “He has 80-plus acres there that he’s going to continue to build on.”
And Trump told the El Salvador leader in the Oval Office on Monday that he’s “gotta build about five more places”.
Bukele responded: “We’ve got space.”
To which the Republican said: “It’s not big enough.”
Upon being asked about the deportations that were shortly suspended by a US court last month, the Republican said he also wanted “to go a step further” in getting “homegrown criminals” out of the US.
Trump revealed: “We also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, hit elderly ladies on the back of the head when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters.
“I’d like to include them in people to get out of the country.”
Alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang in the prison[/caption]
A group of 2,000 detainees are moved to the Terrorist Confinement Center[/caption]
Inmates’ ankles and hands are shackled together in one of El Salvador’s brutal jails[/caption]
Incredible images in CECOT show thousands of violent skinhead gangsters from the country’s main gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, crammed into the inescapable mega-prison.
Pictures show rows and rows of prisoners sitting with their hands behind their shaved heads at the high-tech prison.
Other images reveal gang members stripped down to only white shorts running through the facility as prison officers armed with assault rifles guard the inmates.
This comes as Noem was recently filmed touring the CECOT.
In the video, Noem warned criminals who are thinking of coming to the US.
She said: “We are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking of coming to America illegally, don’t do it. You are not welcome.”
Noem met with Bukele shortly after the tour to discuss increasing the amount of US deportees bound for the infamous cell.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bukele struck a deal to house Tren de Aragua deportees at CECOT in February.
Rubio said that El Salvador is charging the US a “relatively low” fee for the brutal barracks, but the exact cost has not been disclosed.
CECOT is located 47 miles south of El Salvador’s capital city San Salvador.
Inmates are known to spend 23 and a half hours a day in stuffy cells that hold up to 70 people.
Meanwhile, human rights activists have warned that El Salvador lacks a consistent policy for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees – arguing that the agreement might not be limited to violent criminals.
Manuel Flores, the secretary general of the leftist opposition party Farabundo Mart National Liberation Front, slammed the safe third-country plan and said it would signal that the region is Washington’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”
Trump’s deal with El Salvador
By Annabel Bate, Foreign News Reporter
In the “extraordinary” offer from President Nayib Bukele, some of the most dangerous thugs residing comfortably in US jails will be sent to El Salvador to serve their time.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in February that Bukele agreed to the migratory agreement that will see US deportees of any nationality locked up.
Rubio gloated that it was the most “unprecedented, extraordinary, migratory agreement anywhere in the world” following tense talks at Bukele’s lakeside country house just outside of San Salvador.
He added that the Salvadoran president even “offered to do the same” for some of America’s most dangerous criminals currently locked up in the US – despite being citizens or legal residents.
Bukele agreed to take back blood-thirsty Salvadoran MS-13 gang members residing in the US unlawfully, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce explained in a statement.
She added that the Salvadoran president also “promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country.”
In regards to the country also accepting to lock up dangerous American criminals, Bruce dubbed it as an “extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country.”
The notion of El Salvador accepting foreign nationals arrested in the US for violating immigration laws is dubbed a “safe third country agreement.”
Officials have hinted that this could be an option for brutal Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in the US if Venezuela were to refuse to accept them.
Heavily tattooed gang members are crammed into cells[/caption]