US deportations to El Salvador nearly double in early 2026

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The U.S. deported 5,033 people to El Salvador in the first three months of 2026, nearly doubling the 2,547 deportations recorded in the same period in 2025, according to El Salvador migration authority figures obtained by The Associated Press. The increase is occurring as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has positioned himself as an ally for President Donald Trump’s deportation priorities, with the Salvadoran government offering to help carry out transfers and imprisonment connected to U.S. enforcement.

The first-quarter total comes from El Salvador’s migration authority figures that AP reported it obtained on Tuesday. In AP’s account, the jump amounts to a nearly 98% increase year over year during the comparable Jan.-March windows.

AP reported that the U.S. has stopped regularly releasing deportation data, leaving outside groups and destination-country reporting as key sources for tracking changes. In that environment, experts and organizations have relied on information from countries receiving deportees, along with data on deportation flights and related figures, according to AP.

César Ríos, of the Asociación Agenda Migrante El Salvador (AAMES), said in the AP story that the increase “confirms a real hardening of the U.S. immigration system toward the region.” AP linked the escalation to a broader pattern of expanded deportation flights under the Trump administration, including removals connected to third countries.

AP said deportation flights from the U.S. jumped around 61% between 2024 and 2025, based on data compiled by AAMES and other organizations. AP also reported that U.S. enforcement has accelerated globally while governments in Latin America have been drawn into arrangements to accept deportees.

The AP report tied Bukele’s role to his efforts to align politically and operationally with Trump. AP said that although Mexico and some other Central American nations have accepted deportees from third countries, Bukele has “boldly embraced” Trump’s efforts in the region.

AP also described a prior episode that fueled international criticism: in March 2025, Bukele accepted 238 Venezuelan deportees accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang and locked them up in a mega-prison built for accused gang members. The AP story said the incident prompted widespread accusations of human rights abuses.

The AP report said the geopolitical flashpoint came after the Trump administration struck a deal with Bukele involving transfer and imprisonment of foreign criminals in El Salvador, under which AP reported El Salvador would receive $6 million from the U.S. AP described the arrangement as part of Trump’s push to enlist allies across Latin America.

More recently, AP said that in April the Trump administration mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland resident and Salvadoran citizen with protected status in the U.S., turning the case into a legal and political flashpoint. AP said Bukele initially refused to return Abrego García and denied accusations of beating and torture that human rights groups said were documented in Salvadoran prisons; the AP report also said Abrego García was later returned to the U.S. in June to face charges, and his lawyers called the allegations “baseless.”

AP further reported that Bukele joined a coalition of right-leaning Trump allies in a group of countries Trump dubbed the Shield of the Americas, described as aimed at cracking down on criminal groups in Latin America. AP said Mexico and Colombia did not attend, even though the two were described as central to the effort.

The AP story also said some migrants in the U.S. are watching U.S. Supreme Court arguments as Trump seeks to stop shielding hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and Syria, a decision that AP reported more than 200,000 Salvadorans with temporary protections worry could eventually affect them. Bukele has helped the U.S. with immigration-related steps even before Trump took office, AP reported, including a $1,130 fee for travelers from dozens of countries connecting through El Salvador’s main airport beginning in 2023 amid pressure from the Biden administration.

In AP’s account, analysts said Bukele’s government used changes in migration flows as a bargaining chip to offset human-rights criticisms from the U.S., while his crackdown on gangs was linked to dips in migration.