Trump’s deal that got migrants shipped to notorious El Salvador prison is only making MS-13 gang stronger: report
Donald Trump’s efforts to maximize the punishment imposed upon migrants who illegally cross the U.S. border or otherwise run up against immigration law are now directly undermining his administration’s efforts to weaken MS-13, according to a new report.
The violent criminal gang has been a menace in parts of the United States and has also been central to GOP efforts to raise fears about migrant communities in general.
The administration used MS-13 as an example most recently to justify the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite not proving any clear links between him and the gang. He was sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador before eventually being returned to the U.S. and Abrego Garcia is currently facing criminal prosecution here.
Now, a New York Times report reveals that the U.S. policy of deporting migrants like Abrego Garcia to CECOT — a headline-grabbing policy that wowed right-wing supporters of Trump’s mass deportation efforts as the White House tried to project tough consequences for illegal immigration — is actually aiding the gang’s efforts to evade justice.
The Times, citing interviews with 30 people with knowledge of the multi-agency efforts to prosecute MS-13 and also of U.S.-El Salvador relations, reported that the return of key MS-13 leaders to El Salvador by the Trump administration was hindering efforts to fight the gang.
The Times reported that U.S. prosecutors have been building a case alleging a “corrupt pact between the Salvadoran government and some high-ranking MS-13 leaders.” The Times report says the gang members agreed to drive down violence and bolster Bukele — in return they allegedly got cash and perks in jail.
As a result, the outlet reported, two major ongoing cases against some of MS-13’s highest-ranking leaders could be damaged, and other defendants could be less likely to cooperate or testify in court, their sources said.
The Trump administration began deporting migrants with criminal convictions to the CECOT facility earlier this year. Officials have insisted that only violent criminals are being sent there, but a 60 Minutes investigation found that a majority of the deportees have no such convictions or charges on record.
One of the men deported to the CECOT prison facility earlier this year was Cesar Humberto Lopez-Larios, whom ICE officials described as playing a “significant leadership rol[e] in the organization” upon his arrest in 2024. Lopez-Larios was deported in March.
People involved with the MS-13 investigation who spoke to the Times described the deportations of Lopez-Larios and others as directly hindering efforts to determine the extent of cooperation between the gang and El Salvador’s government.
The Times describes investigators as deeply suspicious of the government run by President Nayib Bukele and aware of multiple instances where Salvadoran officials facilitated meetings between MS-13 members and imprisoned leaders in CECOT and other facilities, and provided other assistance to the gang.
One, former DHS special agent Christopher Musto, told the Times he believed Bukele himself was “dirty” — Musto is now running for local office in New Jersey.
“He was corrupt. And now he’s sitting next to the president in the Oval Office and he’s got prime access to the leader of the free world,” Musto alleged of Bukele.
A White House spokesperson told the Times that “any suggestion that President Trump isn’t successfully eradicating terrorist criminal gangs from the United States is just plain stupid.”
