SAN SALVADOR, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- El Salvador and the United States have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to speed up deportations and improve the exchange of information on detainee immigrants, Salvadoran authorities said Thursday.

    The agreement was reached Wednesday at the second meeting of the Bi-national Working Group on Removals and Migration Topics, where migration issues were discussed.

    Both sides agreed to speed up the issuing of traveling documents for the detainees to be repatriated and to schedule a visit of Salvadoran officers to the border between Mexico and the United States.

    Alonzo Pena, deputy assistant secretary of Operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that "we are working together with the Salvadoran government for faster repatriating the Salvadorans at the detention centers."

    During the meeting, both sides also discussed alternatives to immigration detentions of Salvadorans in the United States.

    In 2009, 19,175 Salvadorans were deported from the United States, according to the Immigration Office in El Salvador. This represents a 5 percent decrease compared with 2008, when 20,203 Salvadorans were deported.