The Trump administration has deported tons of of migrants it alleges are MS-13 gang members — calling them “terrorists” — to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT mega-prison.
May Americans convicted of violent crimes be subsequent?
“If it is a homegrown prison, I’ve no drawback,” President Donald Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace on Monday throughout his assembly with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
“If we will do this, that is good. And I am speaking about violent individuals. I am speaking about actually dangerous individuals. Actually dangerous individuals. Each bit as dangerous as those coming in.”
Earlier than reporters entered the room, Trump even steered to Bukele he ought to construct extra prisons as a result of the mega-prison is not “sufficiently big” to carry “the homegrowns” he needs to ship from the U.S.
“We’re finding out the legal guidelines proper now,” Trump stated, after earlier saying they “all the time need to obey the regulation.”
He made an identical remark about sending Individuals to overseas prisons in February, saying again then as nicely that the legal guidelines can be should be checked.
A number of authorized specialists advised ABC Information any such state of affairs can be unconstitutional.
“I do not assume that any president who understands the rule of regulation or who respects the constitutional democracy that we dwell in would even assume in these phrases,” stated David Leopold, an lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Attorneys Affiliation.
“The USA is the house of United States residents. And residents can’t be deported, interval,” Leopold stated.
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 common from sending American criminals to prisons in different nations,” stated 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 imagine would permit them to do that. Thus far, they’ve sidestepped.
“Nicely, Jesse, these are Individuals 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 secure once more,” Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, who Trump particularly stated was trying into the problem, advised Fox Information’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Monday evening.
“These individuals should be locked up so long as they’ll, so long as the regulation permits. We’re not going to allow them to go anyplace. And if we now have to construct extra prisons in our nation, we’ll do it,” Bondi stated, notably mentioning sending Individuals 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.
“Nicely, 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 stated they’d deport American criminals who commit “egregious” crimes. Trump on Monday cited criminals who “push individuals into subways” or “hit aged women on the again of the top.”
“In fact, we now have the best 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 Individuals, they continue to be right here. That is the baseline proper of citizenship, and all the time has been,” stated Amanda Frost, a professor on the College of Virginia Faculty of Regulation.
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 stated.
Salvadoran jail guards escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang just lately deported by the U.S. authorities on the CECOT jail, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 12, 2025.
Press Secretary of the Presidency 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 particular person and deport them,” Frost stated. “However then it must be that they dedicated some type of fraud or error of their naturalization course of. An unrelated crime couldn’t be the idea for denaturalizing and deporting any individual.”
Nonetheless, specialists had been alarmed by Trump’s feedback on desirous 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 courtroom.
The Supreme Courtroom has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. and say he was deported illegally. Bondi on Monday stated it was “as much as El Salvador” to return him, and Salvadoran President Bukele stated he would not accomplish that.
“That’s chilling,” Frost stated, “as a result of if that is their view, then assuming they’ll handle to get individuals overseas, they may then throw up their arms and say, ‘We will 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 Individuals to an El Salvador jail. Homan stated he hasn’t talked to the president but.
“The notion is simply so absurd,” Leopold, the previous president of American Immigration Attorneys Affiliation, stated. “If it wasn’t so terrifying {that a} sitting president of the USA so loosely makes use of rhetoric about deporting United States residents, it will be laughable.”
