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 Independent that “any suggestion that President Trump isn’t successfully eradicating terrorist criminal gangs from the United States is just plain stupid.”

“Only The New York Times would be upset that President Trump is removing dangerous, illegal terrorists and criminals from the United States. President Trump is keeping his promise to the American people to expel these monsters from our country and our communities are safer because of the it,” wrote Abigail Jackson. “Any suggestion that President Trump isn’t successfully eradicating terrorist criminal gangs from the United States is just plain stupid. We are grateful for President Bukele’s partnership and for CECOT – one of the most secure facilities in the world. There is no better place for these sick, illegal criminals.”

The Independent has reached out for further comment.

John Durham, the special prosecutor tapped by the Trump administration in its efforts to punish those linked to the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, led up efforts at the DOJ to dismantle MS-13 under the Biden administration. In February 2023, Durham insisted that bringing MS-13 leaders to the U.S. for prosecution was the only way to actually dismantle the group’s command structure.

His new bosses took the opposite approach.

The Trump administration has instead cozied up to Bukele and facilitated the return of MS-13 leaders to El Salvador as part of efforts to draw politically closer to the Central American nation’s government. Much of Bukele’s fondness for Trump can traced back to efforts by the Biden administration to tie his rise to political power to assistance from gang members, which Bukele has denied.

One source told the Times that the DOJ was watching criminal cases against MS-13 leaders “literally pulled out from under them” over the first six months of 2025 as charges were dropped and deportation orders issued.

An infamous commander of the group whom US officials say ordered killings in multiple countries, Vladimir Arévalo Chávez, remains in U.S. custody. Like his fellow alleged MS-13 bosses, the government is trying to drop charges filed against him and order his deportation. His attorneys say the effort is step one of the process of seeing him “silenced by the Bukele administration.”

Among the ties alleged to exist between the Bukele government and MS-13 are efforts to direct USAID funding to the gang, according to the Times. That scam was led by Carlos Marroquín Chica, a close aide to Bukele whose Twitter profile indicates that he remains an ally of the president to this day.

Sanctions issued by the Biden administration against Marroquín Chica expired last year. Much of USAID’s funding to El Salvador was frozen as part of the Trump administration’s broader dismantling of the U.S. foreign aid management process earlier in 2025.