House Democrats are demanding more details about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s dealings with the Salvadoran government as the country agreed to imprison more than 200 men in its most notorious detention facility.
A Tuesday letter from the top Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees asks a series of questions about the arrangement, as well as the return shortly thereafter of high-level MS-13 figures who were slated to be witnesses in U.S. trials.
The request follows reporting that Rubio negotiated the return of the witnesses directly with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as President Trump prepared to sign the Alien Enemies Act in March.
“In this discussion, you reportedly promised that the United States would terminate its informant arrangements with certain high-ranking members of MS-13 in U.S. custody who had been cooperating with law-enforcement so that the men could be turned over to El Salvador, preventing them from testifying in federal courts,” ranking members Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) wrote in the letter obtained by The Hill.
“In exchange, President Bukele would receive and detain Venezuelan nationals and other deportees from the United States,” they continued. “This quid pro quo was arranged in spite of the reported objection of officials from the Department of Justice, who warned that terminating the informant agreements risked undermining years of work and U.S. law-enforcement agencies’ ability to engage informants in the future.”
The letter asks for an accounting of how many MS-13 gang members were sent to El Salvador under the arrangement, including whether any other informants were sent back to the Central American country beyond the nine already reported.
Bukele has been dogged by allegations he has dealt directly with the gang as he worked to turn around the country’s crime rate, including promises on prison privileges, blocking extradition to other countries, and other political protections.
Reports that gang members in U.S. custody were returned to El Salvador reignited scrutiny of Bukele’s dealings with MS-13, including questions about the fate of the men.
The letter asks whether the State Department sought assurance the informants would not be subject to any “cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment” once back in El Salvador.
“We remain deeply concerned that you would prioritize protecting President Bukele’s reputation over delivering justice for American victims of MS-13 crimes by agreeing to give up informants under U.S. protection whose knowledge and testimony is integral to ongoing federal investigations into MS-13 leadership, operations, and ties with President Bukele’s administration,” it reads.
The Trump administration has faced significant pushback for sending more than 200 men to a Salvadoran megaprison, including both Venezuelan and Salvadoran citizens.
As part of a prisoner exchange, the Venezuelan men were returned to their home country. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had received protections from being deported to his native country, has also since been returned to the U.S.
But multiple judges have found the Trump administration unlawfully deported the men without giving them an opportunity to contest the gang ties cited as grounds for their removal.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the government to provide a pathway to return the Venezuelan men who still wish to fight claims from the Trump administration that they are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, accusations that served as the ground for removing the men under the Alien Enemies Act.
The Hill has reached out to the State Department for comment.
