Trump says he would send American criminals to prisons in other countries if legally possible

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is considering whether to move forward with El Salvador’s offer to imprison violent American criminals in extreme cases, despite concerns about its legality raised by both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio reached an unusual agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele the day before, under which El Salvador would accept deportees from the U.S.—including American citizens and legal residents—who have been convicted of violent crimes.

“If we have a legal right to do it, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re looking into it now to see if that’s possible.”

At a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, with President Rodrigo Chaves, Rubio acknowledged the legal complexities of the proposal. “We obviously have a Constitution,” he said. However, he described Bukele’s offer as unprecedented. “It’s a very generous offer. No one has ever proposed anything like it—to outsource, at a fraction of the cost, the handling of some of the most violent criminals in the United States.”

Immigration—an ongoing priority for the Trump administration—was a central topic during Rubio’s first foreign tour as Secretary of State. On his five-country trip to Central America, he has had to navigate turbulence back home at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), leaving many employees at the agency and State Department anxious about job security.

While Rubio was traveling, USAID staffers and Democratic lawmakers were blocked from entering the agency’s Washington headquarters after Elon Musk, who now heads the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, announced that Trump had agreed to shut down USAID entirely.

Thousands of USAID employees had already been laid off, and numerous programs worldwide were shuttered after Trump imposed a broad freeze on foreign assistance. Rubio later offered waivers for life-saving programs, but confusion about which projects are exempt—and fears of permanent cuts—has paralyzed aid work around the globe.

“If an organization receiving U.S. funds doesn’t know how to apply for a waiver, I have serious concerns about its competence,” Rubio said. “Or perhaps they’re intentionally sabotaging the process to make a political statement.”

Despite the chaos surrounding foreign aid, Rubio defended the broader approach. “I’ve long supported foreign aid, and I still do. But foreign aid is not charity,” he said, emphasizing that every dollar spent must serve U.S. national interests.

In his discussions with President Chaves, Rubio addressed the immigration and security challenges Costa Rica faces. The country has become not just a transit point for migrants heading to the U.S. but also a destination for thousands of Nicaraguans fleeing political persecution since Nicaragua’s 2018 crackdown on opposition groups.