El Salvador officials requested specific illegal migrants deported from the U.S., it was reported.
The Trump administration last month began transferring hundreds of aliens to El Salvador, which offered to take in people deported from the U.S. for entering the country illegally and to house some of the violent criminals.
CNN reported Wednesday night that an El Salvador official said his country shares intelligence with the U.S. about gang members wanted by the Central American country.
El Salvador reportedly also provides "complete records" on the migrants before formally requesting their deportation.
"We raise our hands and say, 'Look, this guy,'" El Salvador's Security and Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro told CNN.
Villatoro was asked whether his answer meant El Salvador specified which individuals it wanted deported. He said, "Yes ... it's not random."
The Trump administration has deported more than 270 men, members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang or Salvadorans tied to the MS-13 gang, to El Salvador.
Villatoro told CNN that Salvadoran government officials review each deportation flight that arrives from the U.S. Passengers' names are immediately checked against its gang database.
Salvadorans placed directly into the country's prison system have pending criminal records in El Salvador.
"We checked all of them," he said. "And if we found someone who we are very sure that he is a member of any gang in El Salvador, we capture them and put them in jail.
"We know their background — how many times they were captured for homicide, for drugs, for weapons. This is not about random deportations — this is based on the full record."
Although Bloomberg reported that only a small fraction of the deported aliens had ever been charged with serious crimes in the U.S., a Department of Homeland Security senior official said via email that all of the Venezuelans on the flights had committed a crime because they were in the country illegally.
The official said many of the men who lacked U.S. records nevertheless were gangsters, terrorists, or human-rights abusers.
Those deported from the U.S. are being detained in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Villatoro said the government is prepared to expand CECOT, or even construct a another maximum-security prison, if needed.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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