The Trump administration has deported a whole bunch of migrants it alleges are MS-13 gang members — calling them “terrorists” — to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT mega-prison.
Might Americans convicted of violent crimes be subsequent?
“If it is a homegrown felony, I’ve no drawback,” President Donald Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace on Monday throughout his assembly with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
“If we are able to try this, that is good. And I am speaking about violent folks. I am speaking about actually unhealthy folks. Actually unhealthy folks. Each bit as unhealthy as those coming in.”
Earlier than reporters entered the room, Trump even recommended to Bukele he ought to construct extra prisons as a result of the mega-prison is not “sufficiently big” to carry “the homegrowns” he desires to ship from the U.S.
“We’re finding out the legal guidelines proper now,” Trump mentioned, after earlier saying they “at all times must obey the regulation.”
He made an analogous remark about sending People to overseas prisons in February, saying again then as nicely that the legal guidelines can be have to be checked.
A number of authorized specialists informed ABC Information any such situation can be unconstitutional.
“I do not suppose that any president who understands the rule of regulation or who respects the constitutional democracy that we dwell in would even suppose in these phrases,” mentioned David Leopold, an lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Legal professionals Affiliation.
“The US is the house of United States residents. And residents can’t be deported, interval,” Leopold mentioned.
President Donald Trump meets with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele within the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, April 14, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
“There are quite a few constitutional provisions that bar the president and the lawyer basic from sending American criminals to prisons in different nations,” mentioned Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional regulation professor on the College of North Carolina.
A number of administration officers have been pressed to elaborate on what authorized grounds they consider would permit them to do that. To date, they’ve sidestepped.
“Properly, Jesse, these are People who he’s saying who’ve dedicated essentially the most heinous crimes in our nation. And crime goes to lower dramatically as a result of he has given us a directive to make America protected once more,” Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, who Trump particularly mentioned was trying into the difficulty, informed Fox Information’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Monday night time.
“These folks have to be locked up so long as they will, so long as the regulation permits. We’re not going to allow them to go wherever. And if we now have to construct extra prisons in our nation, we’ll do it,” Bondi mentioned, notably mentioning sending People to prisons within the U.S.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt was requested on Tuesday if deporting Americans to Central American prisons is authorized or if the administration must change the regulation.
“Properly, it is one other query that the president has raised,” Leavitt responded. “It is a authorized query that the president is trying into.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters within the James Brady Press Briefing Room on the White Home, April 15, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
Trump and different officers mentioned they’d deport American criminals who commit “egregious” crimes. Trump on Monday cited criminals who “push folks into subways” or “hit aged girls on the again of the pinnacle.”
“After all, we now have the correct as a authorities to incarcerate people who find themselves a hazard to society, even to execute people who find themselves hazard to society, however they’re People, they continue to be right here. That is the baseline proper of citizenship, and at all times has been,” mentioned Amanda Frost, a professor on the College of Virginia Faculty of Legislation.
Any effort to deport an American citizen to a jail in El Salvador (its CECOT jail has been criticized for alleged human rights abuses) or elsewhere would possible be a violation of the Eighth Modification, which prohibits merciless and weird punishment, Frost mentioned.
Salvadoran jail guards escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang not too long ago deported by the U.S. authorities on the CECOT jail, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 12, 2025.
Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia through Reuters
One potential loophole might be for the Trump administration to attempt to goal naturalized U.S. residents, who can lose their immigration standing in the event that they’ve dedicated treason or falsified info throughout their naturalization course of. However these situations are uncommon.
“If somebody’s a naturalized citizen, there might be an effort to denaturalize that individual and deport them,” Frost mentioned. “However then it must be that they dedicated some form of fraud or error of their naturalization course of. An unrelated crime couldn’t be the idea for denaturalizing and deporting any person.”
Nonetheless, specialists had been alarmed by Trump’s feedback on eager to ship Americans to overseas prisons — particularly because the authorized battle relating to Kilmar Abrego Garcia continues to play out.
Abrego Garcia is being held at CECOT after being wrongfully deported by the Trump administration final month. Trump and different officers declare he’s a MS-13 gang member, although the administration has supplied little proof of that in court docket.
The Supreme Court docket has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. and say he was deported illegally. Bondi on Monday mentioned it was “as much as El Salvador” to return him, and Salvadoran President Bukele mentioned he would not achieve this.
“That’s chilling,” Frost mentioned, “as a result of if that is their view, then assuming they will handle to get folks in another country, they might then throw up their palms and say, ‘We are able to do nothing about it.'”
ABC Information Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott on Tuesday requested Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan if he believed it was unlawful for Trump to ship People to an El Salvador jail. Homan mentioned he hasn’t talked to the president but.
“The notion is simply so absurd,” Leopold, the previous president of American Immigration Legal professionals Affiliation, mentioned. “If it wasn’t so terrifying {that a} sitting president of america so loosely makes use of rhetoric about deporting United States residents, it might be laughable.”
