Democrats demand answers from Rubio on deal to send MS-13 informants to El Salvador

Source: The Hill

12/23/25 10:50 AM ET


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.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5660932-democrats-rubio-ms-13-el-salvador-deportation/