The proposal is almost certainly illegal, experts said, but President Trump’s eagerness to entertain it showed his willingness to embrace extreme measures to demonstrate he is tough on crime.

The Trump administration and the president of El Salvador said they struck a deal allowing the U.S. to ship detained migrants and imprisoned criminals to a mega-prison there

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that El Salvador’s offer to accept and jail violent American criminals raises clear legal issues but described it as “very generous” and said that President Donald Trump would make a decision on whether to accept it.

El Salvador has agreed to accept criminal illegal immigrants of any nationality as the United States works to deport hundreds of Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members. The agreement, announced by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele‘s administration late Monday,

A U.S. official said the Trump administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens—but said Bukele’s offer was significant.

Under U.S. immigration law, a country such as El Salvador can accept someone deported from the U.S. who isn’t a citizen of that country if the person’s homeland refuses to accept them, says Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former homeland security official under the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

He met with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and senior officials at Bukele's residence on Lake Coatepeque outside the capital for almost three hours, where they agreed to go beyond El Salvador's acceptance of its own deported citizens.

It is unclear whether the Trump administration plans to send incarcerated U.S. citizens to El Salvador. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States is “grateful” for the offer.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is reviewing an offer from the president of El Salvador to deport not just undocumented immigrants but also American prisoners to a mega-prison in the South American country.