US Deportations to El Salvador Double as Bukele, Trump Continue to Clean up Crime in Both Countries
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The number of people deported to El Salvador from the U.S. nearly doubled in the first months of 2026, according to official figures, which come as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has positioned himself as an ally willing to help the Trump administration accelerate deportations.
The U.S. deported 5,033 Salvadorans back to their country in the first three months of 2026 compared with 2,547 deportees in the same period in 2025, according to El Salvador migration authority figures obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday.
That marks nearly a 98 percent increase at the same time that the Trump administration has boosted deportation flights across the world. Globally, deportation flights from the U.S. jumped around 61 percent between 2024 and 2025, according to data compiled by the Asociación Agenda Migrante El Salvador, or AAMES, and other organizations.
The sharp increase in deportations “confirms a real hardening of the U.S. immigration system toward the region,” César Ríos of AAMES said.
The jump comes as Bukele, a tough-on-crime politician, has sought to align himself with President Donald Trump, and the U.S. government has lined up allies across Latin America to help him carry out his agenda. While Mexico and other Central American nations have quietly accepted deportees from third countries, Bukele has boldly embraced Trump’s efforts in Latin America.
In March 2025, Bukele most notably accepted 238 Venezuelan deportees accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and locked them up in a mega-prison built for gang members.
Bukele joined a coalition of other right-leaning Trump allies in a group of countries that Trump dubbed the Shield of the Americas, aimed at cracking down on criminal groups in Latin America.
Meanwhile, many migrants in the U.S. are turning their eyes on Supreme Court arguments as Trump seeks to stop shielding hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and Syria, a decision many of the more than 200,000 Salvadoran migrants with temporary protections worry might eventually affect them.
Bukele has helped the U.S. with its immigration agenda even before Trump entered office.
In 2023, El Salvador’s government began to slap a $1,130 fee on travelers from dozens of countries connecting through the nation’s main airport, amid pressure from the Biden administration to help control the number of migrants moving toward the United States’ southern border. At the same time, migration from El Salvador, fueled by gang violence and poverty, dipped following Bukele’s war on the gangs.
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Megan Janetsky reported from Mexico City.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
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