Under U.S. immigration law, a country such as El Salvador can accept someone deported from the U.S. who isn’t a citizen of that country if the person’s homeland refuses to accept them, says Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former homeland security official under the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late Monday that El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, including violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the offer includes incarcerated American citizens who would be held in the country’s maximum-security prison.