CNN
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In late January, Erik Prince, a long-time ally of President Donald Trump and a notorious private security contractor, gathered a meeting of executives in Washington, DC, to discuss ways their own private security firms might help the new administration deport millions of undocumented migrants.
One proposal in particular caught Prince’s attention: the idea of sending migrants with criminal records for detention in another country as they awaited transit to their countries of origin.
In the months leading up to Trump’s victory in November, Prince had struck up a working relationship with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, which not everyone at the meeting knew. Trump officials had also been having separate conversations with Bukele about accepting undocumented migrants from the US.
Prince eventually excused himself from the group, telling those gathered that he planned to pitch the detention idea directly to Bukele.
The next week, Bukele stood beside Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the presidential residence in San Salvador for a major announcement:
Not only would El Salvador accept and jail potentially hundreds of thousands of violent undocumented immigrants currently in the US, it would also take in “dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents.”
The offer was as remarkable as it was legally tenuous – with a world leader publicly discussing detaining US citizens on foreign soil.
The State Department has said little since about what elements of the deal – if any – might be utilized. But the episode, including Prince’s direct line to Bukele, reported here for the first time, demonstrates how a former pariah of Washington has newly established himself back inside Trump’s orbit.
Interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration officials and people close to Prince suggest that he has gained traction within the second Trump administration and is moving quickly to leverage his influence in pursuit of long-held policy beliefs, some of which could turn into big business for him.
Prince was effectively expelled at the end of the first Trump administration, banned from inside the Pentagon and CIA by officials who felt his ideas for using mercenary forces around the world brought unwanted scrutiny and pushed the boundaries of legality in his bid to win government contracts, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The United Nations went on to investigate Prince over his foreign dealings, including alleged arms trafficking violations as part of a failed mercenary operation in Libya. (Prince has denied he’s ever been involved in operations in Libya at any time.)
But with Trump back in office that scrutiny appears to have abated as Prince has maneuvered his way back to a position of influence.
Prince has been seen repeatedly at the Pentagon for the first time since his unofficial excommunication from the building in 2020, and is angling to join two key Defense advisory boards , according to two sources familiar with the matter. That could potentially put him in regular contact with senior Pentagon officials.
Prince also participates in group text chats that include senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security, State Department and the White House National Security Council, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The State Department did not reply to requests for comment.
Prince first gained notoriety during the Iraq War when his private contracting firm Blackwater provoked international outrage after a deadly 2007 shooting that killed Iraqi civilians.
Blackwater lost a $1 billion contract with the State Department to protect American diplomatic personnel in 2009, after the Iraqi government refused to renew the company’s operating license.
Even before Trump’s 2024 election win, Prince was quietly pitching controversial, yet familiar, ideas for executing what are now some of Trump’s most challenging foreign policy directives, according to two people familiar with his thinking.
Prince’s latest proposals center around using his network of private contractors, including former US special forces operators, as a catch-all solution for a variety of potential Trump initiatives – from deportations to conducting operations against designated terror groups abroad, to helping secure valuable mineral deposits buried beneath foreign soil.
One 26-page proposal reviewed by CNN calls for deputizing private security contractors to swiftly deport undocumented immigrants. The proposal suggests hiring retired ICE and CBP officers, as well as retired state and local law enforcement and properly trained veterans to arrest people.
“Every crisis, he finds a way to poke his nose in,” said one person familiar with Prince’s recent lobbying.
“He is constantly presenting plans to fix national security issues with his company,” another source familiar with Prince’s efforts told CNN.
Prince has recently floated a proposal to senior Trump officials to use private military contractors to help carry out operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to three sources familiar with the matter. While the details of the Yemen proposal remain unclear, sources described it as an adaptation of his previous plans for using private contractors in hotspots like Afghanistan and Somalia.
“He has presented the plan numerous times but it hasn’t gone anywhere,” one of the sources said, adding that Prince has repeatedly pitched the plan to several senior officials at the National Security Council and others in Trump’s orbit.
Asked by CNN if he wanted to discuss his recent proposals, Prince responded: “No thank you.”
Prince also appears to be getting involved in Ecuador’s security crackdown. President Daniel Noboa revealed in a March 11 post on Instagram that he met with the Blackwater founder to form a “strategic alliance” against narcoterrorism and illegal fishing. A day earlier, Noboa had announced the imminent arrival of “special forces from abroad” to tackle crime in Ecuador’s most violent areas, though he did not specify their origins.
The move signals a growing role for Prince’s private security firm in the country’s fight against organized crime. CNN has reached out to Noboa’s office for more details.
Back in the US, some former officials wince at the potential of Prince being newly empowered and pitching private security contractors as a way to achieve Trump’s goal of mass deportations.
“This isn’t just bad policy – it’s a dangerous, un-American escalation,” said Jason P. Houser, former ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. “Mass deportation plans handed to for-profit mercenaries with a record of failure and abuse abroad will devastate our communities.”
Prince’s contact with top US officials remains largely limited to private channels and he has not yet secured a formal meeting at the White House to discuss his immigration and Yemen plans, the source added.
The Trump White House appears to be keeping Prince at arms-length, at least for now. But his activity has started to bubble into view. After Politico in February reported on Prince’s proposal to use private security contractors to arrest undocumented immigrants, Trump was asked specifically about it. While he told reporters he hadn’t seen the proposal, he said he “wouldn’t be opposed.”
In an interview with NewsNation last month, Prince rejected that the proposal was for a “private army,” saying: “It was a memo generated to describe how to achieve the logistics necessary to move the millions of people that they intend to deport.”
Prince’s efforts have been encouraged by a network of close Trump allies who were, in many cases, pushed to the periphery by more establishment Republican figures in the first term – but have become critical insiders in the opening weeks of the second.
Some current and former officials have quietly provided Prince their input on some of his recent proposals before he formally presents it to the White House, according to two sources briefed on the matter.
Among Prince’s closest allies, sources said, are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Prince served as a character witness for Gabbard, who spent weeks as one of the administration’s more controversial cabinet nominees based on concerns from some Republican senators about her qualifications.
Gabbard was confirmed last month – and is now running the same intelligence agencies that tend to consider Prince to be “radioactive,” in the words of one senior official, who pointed to “baggage from his time running Blackwater and conflicts of interest later.”
Prince’s lobbying effort intensified after Trump’s win in November. In the lead-up to the January 20 inauguration, Prince sought to reestablish himself in the president’s orbit, reaching out to allies helping with the transition process to float various plans for using private contractors, sources said.
Prince also made multiple trips to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort during this period – joining the MAGA faithful and others seeking influence in the new administration as they paid homage to the incoming president.
Sources say that Prince has set his sights on becoming a sort of shadow adviser for the new administration, particularly when it comes to overhauling the US immigration system.
Prince has told associates that his interest in Bukele was first sparked almost exactly one year ago at the conservative CPAC annual conference held just outside of Washington, DC, two of those associates told CNN.
Prince, a member of CPAC’s board, was backstage when Bukele’s motorcade arrived for his scheduled speaking slot. Prince recounted how he was struck by the response of the kitchen workers and convention staff who greeted Bukele’s arrival with cheers and homemade signs.
The 23-minute speech Bukele proceeded to deliver when he took the stage deftly wove together the story of his own political rise and declaration of war on his country’s gangs.
The crowd of conservative activists and headliners responded with a standing ovation.
Six months later, Prince was in El Salvador, touring the country’s notorious mega prison CECOT, which has served as the well-publicized linchpin of Bukele’s frontal assault on the violent gang culture that had ravaged the country in the years preceding his first election victory.
Prince told associates that he was struck by an inmate population that he viewed as “docile” and totally under control of the guards despite their violent histories.
The next day, Prince met for the first time with Bukele.
He told Bukele he’d seen his speech at CPAC, which he said, “was fantastic,” according to a video of their meeting shared with CNN.
Prince went on to say he was “very impressed” by what he saw at CECOT and promised to “proudly go back and tell the good news story” he believed the prison represented when he returned to the US.
The idea that El Salvador could utilize an expanded version of its prison model to take on criminal undocumented immigrants from the US at a fraction of the cost of housing them at US facilities “made a lot of sense,” Prince would later share with associates, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Asked about his relationship with Prince, a person familiar with Bukele’s international dealings told CNN, “President Bukele is incredibly strategic in his business and diplomatic dealings. He wouldn’t enter a deal with someone like Prince if he believed it’d lead to a divide between El Salvador and the United States. This is something he’d thoroughly vet before moving forward with any private contracting agreements.”
Prince also shared his appreciation for another part of El Salvador’s appeal.
“The surfing is fantastic,” Prince would later say during an episode of his podcast, “Off Leash.” “There’s a fantastic surfing culture on the pacific coast – very cheap, good food and some really cool surfing resorts.”
CNN’s David Culver contributed to this report.
