Washington DC - Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly betrayed informants in exchange for a deal with El Salvador to accept and imprison deported migrants from the US.

According to the Washington Post, Rubio agreed to give up US informants embedded within the MS-13 crime gang in exchange for a deal to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.

The deal struck with Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele required nine MS-13 gang leaders who were collaborating with the US government to be returned to El Salvador.

"The deal is a deep betrayal of US law enforcement, whose agents risked their lives to apprehend the gang members," contractor Douglas Farah, who was involved in the investigation, told the Washington Post.

"Who would ever trust the word of US law enforcement or prosecutors again?" Farah asked.

Following the alleged agreement, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members were deported without due process to El Salvador, where they have been imprisoned in inhumane conditions.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott defended the deal.

"Hardened TdA gang members are back in Venezuela," Pigott told the Washington Post. "MS-13 gang members are being prosecuted in the US and El Salvador. And Americans are safer as a result of these incredible efforts."