EL Salvador is to double the size of the world's biggest prison to house up to 80,000 inmates as President Trump hints he could send “homegrown criminals” to the terrifying compound.
plans to expand the gargantuan Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, that houses some of the
The sprawling site was initially opened in 2023 to house during Bukele's crackdown on El Salvador's blood-thirsty gangs.
CECOT is currently holding 15,000 people, including hundreds of alleged gang members that Trump recently deported from the US.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told the Wall Street Journal following her talks with Bukele: “We have no plans to bring them back, this is a long-term solution.”
She also revealed the bombshell plans “to double the size”.
Noem added: “He has 80-plus acres there that he’s going to continue to build on.”
And Trump told the El Salvador leader in the Oval Office on Monday that he's “gotta build about five more places”.
Bukele responded: “We've got space.”
To which the Republican said: “It's not big enough.”
Upon being asked about the deportations that were shortly suspended by a US court last month, the Republican said he also wanted “to go a step further” in getting “homegrown criminals” out of the US.
Trump revealed: “We also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, hit elderly ladies on the back of the head when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters.
“I'd like to include them in people to get out of the country.”
Incredible images in CECOT showMS-13 and Barrio 18, crammed into the inescapable mega-prison.
Pictures show rows and rows of prisoners sitting with their hands behind their shaved heads at the high-tech.
Other images reveal gang members stripped down to only white shorts running through the facility as prison officers armed with assault rifles guard the inmates.
This comes as.
In the video, Noem warned criminals who are thinking of coming to the US.
She said: “We are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking of coming to America illegally, don’t do it. You are not welcome.”;
Noem met with Bukele shortly after the tour to discuss increasing the amount of US deportees bound for the infamous cell.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bukele to house Tren de Aragua deportees at CECOT in February.
Rubio said that El Salvador is charging the US a “relatively low”; fee for the brutal barracks, but the exact cost has not been disclosed.
CECOT is located 47 miles south of El Salvador's capital city San Salvador.
Inmates are known to spend 23 and a half hours a day in stuffy cells that hold up to 70 people.
Meanwhile, human rights activists have warned that El Salvador lacks a consistent policy for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees – arguing that the agreement might not be limited to violent criminals.
Manuel Flores, the secretary general of the leftist opposition party Farabundo Mart National Liberation Front, slammed the safe third-country plan and said it would signal that the region is Washington's “backyard to dump the garbage.”
