The Nayib Bukele administration of El Salvador has signaled to the Trump administration that it is willing to take in deported immigrants from other countries, but it likely has its own incentives to striking a deal, according to current and former senior homeland security officials.
The Trump administration is in talks with the government of El Salvador to accept citizens from other countries, including Venezuelan gang members of Tren de Aragua, CBS News reported earlier this week.
Border security and immigration experts, each with decades of government experience working on the issue, said El Salvador may be stepping up to help in good faith but was likely eyeing the moment as an opportunity that would also benefit itself.
“I think Bukele is trying to improve their standing in the hemisphere with this particular president and, I think, in the world,” said a current senior homeland security official who spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday.
Since the election of Bukele in 2019, the country has pounced on its own gang, MS-13, putting tens of thousands of the clique’s members in prison.
The government of El Salvador has opened the world’s largest prison as part of the country’s major crackdown on the MS-13 gang, a move that the country’s president said was the opposite response to how the United States was “protecting criminals” under former President Joe Biden.

The country also became the world’s first bitcoin nation and has moved to become an economic powerhouse in Latin America — that is, if it can continue on the trajectory it is on. It has received more than $1 billion in foreign aid from the U.S. over the past two decades.
“He’s just trying to be more than they’ve been previously and it seems like it’s working,” said the second official. “There’s a Trump effect in terms of how, ‘They need help, let’s help them and it will come down in our favor.’”
Two former senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials agreed that it would be beneficial to El Salvador to step up to the plate.
Victor Avila, a retired senior ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agent, said El Salvador is “not afraid” of Tren de Aragua, a gang that has become synonymous with MS-13 in the U.S., because they have proven their strength in getting a hold of the country and shutting down MS-13.
“El Salvador really, really wants to partner with the U.S. They really are looking at economic investments here, and so I think that’s why they’re doing it,” said Avila in a phone call. “I think El Salvador in the last few years, besides cleaning up their cities and making it safe, it’s safer in El Salvador than a lot of our own cities here in the U.S. now. The beaches are open. The economic opportunity in El Salvador has grown tremendously.”
“We’re at the point where [it is a] ‘Let me help me, help you,’ type of situation. [El Salvador is] going to help the country, the U.S., become a safer place,” said Avila. “The U.S. can no longer ignore El Salvador and categorize them the way they used to categorize them because of the situation of MS-13.”
The second former official, who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity because of his relationships with current senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security, said in working with the Salvadoran government under the previous administration, the same principle of “help me, help you” was present in deals between the countries.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“There were promises made from the administration to the El Salvador government. ‘Hey, if you help us with this, this, and this, you’ll get, again, it was all financial support, nation building, all that other stuff,” said the third official. “I would guess that it’s that, it’s that same thing because that’s how we got cooperation before is the State Department using some of their leverage and funds and everything to help them out.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.