The Trump administration has deported a whole lot 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 downside,” President Donald Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace on Monday throughout his assembly with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
“If we are able to 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 instructed to Bukele he ought to construct extra prisons as a result of the mega-prison is not “large enough” to carry “the homegrowns” he needs to ship from the U.S.
“We’re learning the legal guidelines proper now,” Trump mentioned, after earlier saying they “at all times should obey the regulation.”
He made an analogous remark about sending Individuals to overseas prisons in February, saying again then as properly that the legal guidelines could be should be checked.
A number of authorized consultants informed ABC Information any such situation could 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.
“America 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 normal 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 imagine would enable them to do that. Thus far, they’ve sidestepped.
“Nicely, Jesse, these are Individuals who he’s saying who’ve dedicated probably 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 Normal Pam Bondi, who Trump particularly mentioned was trying into the difficulty, informed Fox Information host Jesse Watters on “Primetime” on Monday night time.
“These individuals should 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’ve got to construct extra prisons in our nation, we are going to do it,” Bondi mentioned, 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 mentioned they’d deport American criminals who commit “egregious” crimes. Trump on Monday cited criminals who “push individuals into subways” or “hit aged girls on the again of the pinnacle.”
“In fact, we’ve got the fitting 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 at all times has been,” mentioned Amanda Frost, a professor on the College of Virginia College 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 seemingly be a violation of the Eighth Modification, which prohibits merciless and strange 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 by way of 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 data 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 mentioned. “However then it must be that they dedicated some kind of fraud or error of their naturalization course of. An unrelated crime couldn’t be the idea for denaturalizing and deporting any person.”
Nonetheless, consultants 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 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 individuals overseas, they may then throw up their fingers 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 Individuals 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 could be laughable.”
