El Salvador plans to double the size of the maximum-security prison where U.S. deportees are being held, it was reported.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele informed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during her visit to the Central American country last month, that he plans to expand the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
CECOT already is the world's largest prison, with room to house up to 40,000 inmates. Doubling capacity would create space for a total of 80,000 inmates.
The prison currently holds roughly 15,000 people, including hundreds of alleged gang members the Trump administration has recently deported from the U.S.
Upon her return to the States, Noem indicated the Trump administration will continue to send illegal migrant criminals to El Salvador.
"We have no plans to bring them back, this is a long-term solution," Noem told the Journal. "He has plans to double the size. He has 80-plus acres there that he's going to continue to build on."
Bukele ordered the megaprison built as he began his campaign against El Salvador's gangs in March 2022. It opened a year later in the town of Tecoluca, about 45 miles east of the capital, San Salvador.
During a White House meeting in the Oval Office on Monday, President Donald Trump told Bukele that "you gotta build about five more places."
"We've got space," Bukele said.
"It's not big enough," Trump replied.
The initial arrival of the migrants, alleged by the U.S. to be members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, took place last month under an agreement in which the Trump administration will pay Bukele's government $6 million for one year of services.
Still, Bukele told Noem he wants to focus on incarcerating alleged criminals rather than serving as a destination for third country nationals.
"I don't think he's really interested in that," Noem said, the Journal reported.
Among CECOT's prisoners is alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019. He was deported in March in violation of an immigration judge's order blocking his removal to El Salvador.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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