President Donald Trump met on Monday with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, where the two leaders discussed working together to assuage the violent crime issues introduced by Joe Biden’s illegal immigration crisis in the U.S.
“We appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime and so do we,” President Trump remarked during a brief meeting in front of the press.
President Bukele expressed how happy he was to be in the United States and related his intention to work together with the White House on removing violent illegal aliens to El Salvador’s ironclad confinement centers.
“It’s an honor to be here with the president and leader of the free world…we’re very happy and we’re very eager to help,” Bukele said.
Bukele shared how he had worked to “liberate” millions of people in El Salvador by cracking down on violent crime. “You cannot just free the criminals and think crime’s going to go down magically,” he remarked.
Trump pointed out that this aversion to law and order had begun under the Biden administration. “We had an administration…that allowed people to come in freely from all over the world,” he said.
Trump added, “It’s a sin what they did, and you are helping us out, and we appreciate it.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also asked by President Trump to weigh in on the situation at the border and on illegal immigration, which has been a focal point for this administration.
“[It’s] absolutely phenomenal what a great leader can do – clear direction, our laws matter, and we should only have people in our country that love us…Mr. President Bukele, we thank you very much for your partnership, it has been wonderful for us to have somewhere to send the worst of the worst,” she offered.
Bukele then told a story about one Venezuelan man who was deported to El Salvador. This man was allegedly arrested six times in the United States before finally being deported permanently under the Trump administration. This individual also allegedly shot a police officer in the leg in America, according to Bukele.
“There’s something broken,” Bukele said, expressing exasperation with the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce immigration law in America.
“They’re not running things anymore in this country,” Trump interjected. “…We’re run by people with great common sense.”
