80°Good evening
President Donald Trump, right, meets with El Salvador's President Nayib...

President Donald Trump, right, meets with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele during the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25, 2019 in New York. Credit: AP/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump is hosting Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House on Monday as the small Central American nation becomes a critical lynchpin of the U.S. administration's mass deportation operation.

Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country's notorious maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. It is also holding a Maryland man who the administration admits was wrongly deported but has not been returned to the U.S., despite court orders to do so.

That has made Bukele, who remains extremely popular in El Salvador due in part to the crackdown on the country’s powerful street gangs, a vital ally for the Trump administration, which has offered little evidence for its claims that the Venezuelan immigrants were in fact gang members, nor has it released names of those deported.

Read more here

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV Credit: Newsday

      Billy Joel Tribeca premiere ... What's up on LI ... Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV

      SUBSCRIBE

      Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

      ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME