Bukele heads to Washington to consolidate alliance with Trump
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele gestures as he delivers a speech during the inauguration of the Key Institute, a private institution of higher education specializing in engineering and science in San Salvador on March 19, 2025. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — US President Donald Trump will host his El Salvador counterpart Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday, highlighting the central American leader’s role as a top ally in Washington’s crackdown on undocumented immigration.
Bukele has agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States, locking up more than 250 in a notorious Salvadoran prison.
The vast majority are Venezuelans, accused by Trump’s administration of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, though rights organizations have decried what they called “forced disappearances and arbitrary detention.”
READ: US flies alleged gang members to El Salvador despite court block
Relatives of some deportees deny their loved ones are gang members.
Political scientist Napoleon Campos said the meeting between Bukele and Trump had become oversimplified to “the issue of a heavy-handed security approach.”
“There are other topics that could be discussed, such as investments and trade, but it all comes down to talking about a prison,” he said.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Saturday that the US and El Salvador are “working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity.”
He added that future of the deported migrants in Salvadoran custody “is up to President B and his Government. They will never threaten or menace our Citizens again!”
READ: Judge says deportation of Maryland man to El Salvador prison was ‘wholly lawless’
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump and Bukele “will discuss El Salvador’s partnership on using their supermax prison for Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members and how El Salvador’s cooperation with the United States has become a model for others to work with this administration.”
Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem even visited the 40,000-inmate CECOT prison last month, posing in front of a cell overflowing with seemingly dead-eyed and heavily tattooed men.
Aside from political benefits for both Bukele and Trump in sending deportees to El Salvador, there is a potential security and economic boon for Bukele.
His government received $6 million for taking deportees, which Bukele described as “a very low fee for them, but a high one for us.”
READ: ‘Deceived’ Venezuelans protest US deportations to El Salvador
Despite the partnership, El Salvador was among the dozens of US trade partners that the Trump administration slapped with 10 percent tariffs.
The United States is the main destination for Salvadoran exports. Of the nearly $6.5 billion in goods exported from El Salvador in 2024, $2.1 billion went to the United States, including clothing, sugar and coffee, according to the central bank.
“Trade needs to take off, to be fluid,” economist Cesar Villalona told AFP, predicting a fall in exports under the new tariff.
For this reason, the president of the Salvadoran Industrial Association, Jorge Arriaza, hopes Bukele’s visit to the White House will provide “a little more clarity” about the tariff’s implementation.
The United States is home to 2.5 million Salvadorans who are a mainstay of their native country’s economy.
El Salvador received $8.5 billion in family remittances in 2024, 23 percent of the country’s GDP.
In January and February, remittances grew 14 percent compared to the same period in 2024, due to fears over deportation, according to economists.
Some analysts say Bukele should urge Trump to soften policies toward Salvadoran migrants.
“His priority should be the immigration situation of Salvadorans in the United States,” academic Carlos Carcach told AFP.
