Imogen James
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

In his latest meeting with a foreign leader, US President Donald Trump welcomed El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele to the White House in Washington DC today.

In the Oval Office, the pair appeared friendly as they spoke to reporters, often laughing and cracking jokes together.

As our reporters and correspondents have explained, the meeting solidifies a a key alliance for Trump and Bukele.

The US president has begun deporting Venezuelan immigrants to the notorious Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador, with Bukele's backing.

Trump said today that Bukele is "really helping out" the US out by facilitating these detentions, as the Salvadoran president responded that his country is "very eager to help".

Trump also floated the idea of sending US citizens to the maximum-security prison in the future, but that he'd need to look into the legal technicalities first.

The pair were asked by reporters about the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in what Trump's government has described as an "administrative error".

Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters at the White House that the fate of the father of three is now up to El Salvador.

Buekele then said that he does not have the power to return Ábrego García t the US - and that he won't.

Also on the agenda was topics including transgender people in sports, DEI and women, Iran and tariffs and Ukraine and Russia.

After their public question-and-answer session, we're told the two presidents went onto a private lunch, but Bukele gave a thumbs up to reporters as he left the White House a few hours later.

We are ending our live coverage of today's visit, here but you can find more content on the El Salvador deportations from the BBC:

• Read about the unanimous Supreme Court decision on the Ábrego García case that Trump is taking as a win
• Venezuelans deported to mega-prison 'trapped in black hole'
• Stay up-to-date on today's White House visit: El Salvador's leader will not return man deported from the US in error

Image source, EPA

Bukele has built a reputation off his large-scale prisons. Thousands more men are behind bars today than were before he was in office.

Many prisoners are locked in their cells 24 hours a day and get limited time outside.

Bukele has touted these policies as a major win as the crime rate in his country has decreased. But the conditions of these facilities have been widely criticised by human rights groups

"Reducing gang violence by replacing it with state violence cannot be a success," said Amnesty’s Americas director Ana Piquer in a statement. The Salvadoran government had adopted "disproportionate measures", she said.

Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at the organisation Human Rights First, has described Bukele's actions as "the stuff of dictatorships, not democracies".

"Bukele's cooperation with President Trump's agenda, including disappearing people overseas - without due process, violating the principle of non-refoulment, and into prisons notorious for abuse - is unprecedented, rights-violating, and extreme," Barnard said.

Image source, Reuters

Cracking down on immigration was one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises.

Since entering office, he has made sweeping changes to the US immigration system.

He has ended temporary protected status (TPS) - which allows people from countries with unsafe conditions to remain in the US temporarily - for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians.

A cornerstone of Trump's immigration policy is also removing unlawful migrants out of the US and the promise of "mass deportations".

He deported thousands of people in his first several weeks in office.

Trump has also halted asylum and refugee applications.

Border patrol agents have been instructed to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings, which migrants had the legal right to seek before Trump took over the White House.

BBC Mundo

Image source, Reuters

The Cecot (Terrorist Confinement Center) is the symbol of the aggressive and controversial "war on gangs" President Bukele has brought forward since 2022.

It is an enormous facility located in a rural area that spans 116 hectares (287 acres). It was built in less than a year and has the capacity to hold 40.000 inmates, according to the government.

BBC Mundo was allowed to go inside of the facility in 2024.

We witnessed that cells have no windows or ventilation, and that prisoners sleep on metal bunks without mattresses or sheets. Each cell can hold more than 150 prisoners and there are only two toilets with no privacy whatsoever. They have limited access to water.

Inmates reportedly eat with their hands inside the cells, and they are only allowed to go out to exercise for 30 minutes a day.

The jail has been used to hold former members from MS-13 and Barrio 18, which are rival gangs.

It boasts a complex maximum-security system that includes 19 watchtowers, more than a thousand guards and a 2.1 km-long electric fence.

A huge push in Donald Trump's presidential campaign was his tough stance on illegal immigration into the United States.

The administration's deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison is part of implementing that policy.

In February, Homeland Secretary Kirsti Noem said her agency had seen the lowest apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the southern border in 15 years. The BBC has not independently verified this claim.

In a speech to Congress last month, Trump told listeners that: "Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States".

According to a review by BBC's Verify, there is no evidence for a figure this high.

Encounters with migrants at the borders - one measure of illegal migration - reached to about 10 million under Biden, but that doesn't mean that all of those people stayed in the US.

It is impossible to know exactly how many migrants have come to the US illegally, as many will have evaded encounters with law enforcement agencies, but several estimates put the number at around half of what Trump has claimed.

A report published by the Office of Homeland Security, external last year estimated the number of migrants illegally living in the US at 11 million as of January 2022, .

It says about a fifth of them arrived in 2010 or later, but the majority arrived before this time, some as early as the 1980s.

Image source, EPA

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has left the West Wing of the White House, hopping into his black SUV after a lunch with President trump.

Reporters outside asked him how the meeting went. A thumbs-up was Bukele's reply.

Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America editor

Image source, Reuters

Following a particularly bloody weekend in 2022, when more than 70 people were killed in violence that erupted in El Salvador, President Bukele wrote on social media: "Message for the gangs: because of your actions, your 'homeboys' will not be able to see a ray of sunshine."

Following the message, gang members already imprisoned in jails across El Salvador were confined to their cells in the aftermath of the killings, deprived of the time they would normally be allowed to spend in outdoor prison yards.

And when it came to planning the new Cecot mega-jail, cells were deliberately built without any windows.

Prisoners are locked up inside their cells 24 hours a day - except for 30 minutes of group exercise in a windowless corridor.

Image source, Reuters

In the White House, as the leaders of El Salvador and the US sit down for a meeting, the family of a man at the centre of a media storm have gathered nearby.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been mistakenly deported to El Salvador's mega-prison.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the US government needs to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, but so far the administration has said the ball is in El Salvador's court. And President Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office this afternoon that it is "preposterous" to ask whether his country would return the Maryland man.

At the service near to the White House this morning, Abrego Garcia's family was joined by faith leaders to campaign to get him home.

The State attorney for Prince George's County, where Abrego Garcia lived, told his family that he is still a resident of the county.

"The government has to make amends. It was their mistake," State Attorney Aisha Braveboy says to cheers and claps.

She asks them to own up to the mistake and make it right. "We ask, we beg, we pray, that we bring Kilmar home."

What is Bukele gaining from the agreement with the US?published at 18:40 British Summer Time 14 April

18:40 BST 14 April

BBC Mundo

In recent weeks, the US has deported large groups of undocumented migrants to El Salvador, often without revealing their identities or presenting evidence of criminal ties. Upon arrival, they are immediately taken to Cecot, a facility widely criticized for human rights abuses and lack of legal protections.

So what does President Nayib Bukele gain from this arrangement?

First, money.

According to US government documents obtained by the Associated Press, El Salvador is receiving $20,000 per deportee per year. That adds up to about $6 million for the most recent group. Bukele says these payments, along with prison labour programs, will help make the prison system financially self-sufficient.

Second, political capital.

By aligning closely with Donald Trump, Bukele gains favor in Washington and reduces scrutiny of his internal policies. His government has arrested more than 80,000 people under a state of emergency that has lasted three years, with frequent reports of detentions without due process. Critics say the US is now less likely to challenge democratic setbacks or rights abuses in El Salvador.

Third, control.

Among the deportees are alleged MS-13 gang members. Analysts suggest their return to El Salvador could prevent them from testifying in US courts about past deals between the gang and Bukele's government. While Bukele denies any such negotiations, critics argue that this agreement may help him suppress uncomfortable revelations.

Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from the White House

Image source, EPA

This was as friendly a meeting as you can get in the Oval Office.

President Bukele has described himself as "the world's coolest dictator" - and for President Trump, Nayib Bukele's approach is central to his hard-line deportation policy.

When asked by reporters about the Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia - who has wrongfully been deported to El Salvador’s mega prison - both men were ideologically aligned.

The Trump administration has conceded the move was an error, and the Supreme Court has said the government should "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return. But Trump and the White House refuse to climb down from the unsubstantiated claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of a gang designated a terrorist group.

The administration says the ball is now in El Salvador's court - but President Bukele said this afternoon he won't be releasing Abrego Garcia from prison or returning back to to the US.

President Trump and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele just spoke in the Oval Office and took questions from reporters. Here's what happened:

• The leaders were questioned over the status of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this month
• Attorney General Pam Bondi said it's "up to El Salvador if they want to return him"
• Bukele said that he can't "smuggle a terrorist in" to the US and he doesn't "have the power" to return him
• Trump said wanted to deport "as many [people] as possible", to get rid of criminals he described as "dangerous"
• The president also said he's "all for" sending US citizens who are criminals to foreign prisons, like the Cecot facility in El Salvador
• In addition to questions on deportations, Trump was asked about potential changes to tariffs and said while he doesn't change his mind, he is "flexible"

Stick with us and we'll bring you the latest from this visit from the Salvadoran leader.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, EPA

I've just listened to Trump and Bukele's Oval Office meeting from my post in the White House basement - and not much of what I heard jumped out at me as particularly new as someone who covers both immigration and the White House.

It is clear, however, that both Trump and Bukele are digging into their positions with regards to how deportation flows between the two countries will continue, which Trump said is "really helping" the US.

It was eye-opening, I thought, to hear Trump say that he hoped to deport "as many as possible" to El Salvador.

This includes, potentially, US citizens, an option fraught with legal challenges and which the administration has, repeatedly, acknowledged a lack of clarity on how it would work.

Overall, there appeared to be few, if any, points of disagreement between the two, at least not publicly.

Trump's lack of commitment when asked about temporary protected status (TPS) was the only potential source of friction.

Of course, we don't know what the discussion will be away from the world's cameras during their closed-door lunch.

With the Oval Office meeting wrapping up, Trump is asked electronic tariff exemptions.

"I'm a very flexible person, I don't change my mind but I'm flexible", he says.

He says he "helped" Apple CEO Tim Cook recently.

"I don't wanna hurt anybody," the president adds.

As a reminder, on Saturday a US customs notice stated that smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices from China would be excluded from levies of up to 145%.

Trump later said Chinese-made smartphones and other electronics will not be exempt from tariffs, instead saying they are moving into a different levy "bucket".

Questions from the press have now ended, and journalists are being ushered out of the Oval Office.

Image source, Reuters

Trump is asked about Iran, who the US has been having talks with recently over its nuclear programme.

He says Tehran "cannot" have a nuclear weapon.

"They gotta go fast," he says. "If we have to do something very harsh, we'll do it."

He also describes Iran as "stone-cold broke".

A US response could include a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, he adds.

Trump is now asked whether the US would pay for facilities in El Salvador to house deported criminals.

He says he would "do something" and "help them out".

He'd "like to go a step further", he says, to go after "home grown criminals".

He says he'll have to "look at the law" to see if it's possible.

Trump is asked about how many people he plans to deport to El Salvador, to which he replies: "As many as possible."

He says the US has millions of people who should not be in the country, who he calls "dangerous".

Image source, Reuters

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now speaking, again commenting on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

"I don't understand what the confusion is," he says.

Again, he calls Abrego Garcia a citizen of El Salvador, who was "illegally in the United States who was returned to his country".

The foreign policy of the United States "is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court".

He says no court "has a right" to do this.

Adviser Stephen Miller interjects, and says the Supreme Court said exactly this point.

"We won a case 9-0, but people like CNN are portraying it as a loss," Miller says.

Trump also attacks CNN: "You have no credibility."

For context: In a 9-0 ruling, the justices declined to block a lower court's order to "facilitate" bringing back Kilmar Ábrego García.

A reporter asks Bukele if Kilmar Ábrego García will be returned to the US.

"How can I return a criminal to the US? Smuggle a terrorist in?," Bukele replies.

He then calls the question "absurd" and says he won't release Ábrego García because he isn't fond of releasing people from his prisons.

"The question is preposterous," Bukele says. "I don't have the power to return him to the United States."

Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller is asked to speak by President Trump.

Miller calls Kilmar Abrego Garcia an "illegal alien" and says they wouldn't tell El Salvador how to handle "it's own citizens".

He says federal law states he is no longer eligible for "any form of immigration relief" in the US, and under law he isn't "allowed to be present" in the US.

The Supreme Court says "clearly" that the president or secretary of state cannot be compelled to retrieve Abrego Garcia, Miller argues.

Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador, and it is their decision what is done with him, Miller says.

Image source, Reuters

Questions have now turned to Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador.

"He was illegally in our country," Attorney General Pam Bondi says.

An immigration court and an appellate court ruled that he was a member of MS-13, Bondi says.

Ábrego García's lawyer has said her client is not a member of the gang.

"That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him, that's not up to us," Bondi says, noting Ábrego García is a citizen of El Salvador.

An immigration judge had granted Mr Ábrego García, a Salvadorean, legal protection from deportation in 2019.