President Trump will meet Monday with the leader of El Salvador, President Bukele, as the two men are working in tandem on a mass deportation and confinement operation. The Central American president has taunted American critics of his detention of migrants shipped from the United States. 

Mr. Bukele — described by some critics as an “authoritarian” — has become a hero for conservatives across the world after he launched a brutal crackdown of gang violence in his country, making El Salvador one of the safest nations in the western hemisphere in just a few short years. He jumped at the opportunity to further his ties with American conservatives when Mr. Trump was looking for a partner in his mass deportation scheme.

“I have great respect for him,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last week. “He’s very tough on crime — very, very tough on crime.”

It is unclear whether Mr. Trump’s embrace of the Salvadoran president will serve to shield the tiny Central American economy from the global trade war radiating out from Washington and the mass deportation of other Latin Americans from the United States in recent weeks. There are more than 2.6 million Salvadorans living in the United States, the third-largest group of Latino immigrants in the country, and the money they send home each year accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product.  

Mr. Bukele, who once described himself as “the world’s coolest dictator,” has grown especially close with the new administration in recent months as he aids Mr. Trump’s mass deportation plan. On Tuesday, the State Department lowered its travel advisory notice for El Salvador to a Level One, meaning the American government now ranks Mr. Bukele’s country as being safer to visit than many European ones.

Secretary Rubio — whose first overseas trip as secretary included a visit to Mr. Bukele — expressed his thanks to the Salvadoran leader on X on Saturday. Mr. Rubio says the deportation plans will continue in partnership with Mr. Bukele’s government. 

“Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador. The alliance between @POTUS and President @nayibbukele has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere,” Mr. Rubio said. 

Some high-profile cases of non-citizens being allegedly removed without due process has drawn scorn from Mr. Trump’s critics, however.

A Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, picked up after being accused of being a gang member more than six years ago — accusations a judge found were not sufficiently backed up by evidence — was deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador and has been held there for nearly a month. Administration officials have confessed that Mr. Abrego ended up being deported because of an “administrative error.”

On Saturday evening, lawyers for the Justice Department stated that Mr. Abrego is alive and “secure” in El Salvador. Government lawyers seemed to imply, however, that his fate is solely in the hands of Mr. Bukele, who has shown no interest in breaking with Mr. Trump and releasing the detainee. The Justice Department said in a court filing that Mr. Abrego is being “detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.” 

Mr. Trump echoed his Justice Department’s language in a post on Truth Social on Saturday night. The president declared that the migrants now detained in El Salvador are in the “sole custody” of Mr. Bukele’s government, seeming to imply that he does not believe American courts have jurisdiction over these deportees. 
“President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” Mr. Trump wrote on Saturday.

“These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government.”

In a subsequent filing Sunday, the Justice Department reiterated that it had no updates on Mr. Abrego’s status for the judge and rejected the plaintiff’s request for more details on any agreements between the United States and El Salvador to house deported migrants. Those agreements, the department said, are “classified” state secrets.