There was a bit of a dust-up over the weekend when a U.S. District Judge attempted to stop President Trump from flying some Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador to be imprisoned there. The Trump administration says it disregarded a judge’s order to turn around two planeloads of criminals because the flights were over international waters when the order was issued and therefore the ruling did not apply, I have no idea whether that is valid or not, but the criminals were here illegally, they were violent, and they needed to be in jail somewhere.
On Monday, Townhall posted a statement by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.
This is the statement:
Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country,” he said, They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable).
The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us.
Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year.
On this occasion, the U.S. has also sent us 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, including two ringleaders. One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure.
This will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors.
As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action.
May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States.
We are fortunate to have a President who removes violent criminals from our country.