In a recent statement, President Donald Trump was reported as having stated intentions to deport U.S. passport-holding criminals to El Salvador. In a meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in the White House, Trump had offered to send violent “homegrown criminals” to serve their sentences in the Central American country.
This revelation comes as part of continued scrutiny over the wrongful deportation of a migrant to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. Trump explained that whatever action was taken would be subject to the legality of such deportations, and he emphasized adhering to U.S. laws.
“We have homegrown criminals who commit heinous acts, and I’d like to include them in the group of people to be removed from the country,” Donald Trump stated. He highlighted concerns over violent crimes, mentioning incidents involving assaults on vulnerable individuals.
The suggestion was originally received positively by Bukele, who suggested that El Salvador would be willing to take in U.S. inmates. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt then went on record confirming that the idea is being weighed, characterizing it as something Trump “simply floated.”
Nonetheless, legal experts, such as University of Notre Dame professor Erin Corcoran, have expressed doubt about the possibility of implementing this plan, noting there is “no provision” in American law that would make deporting citizens possible.
The debate emerges on the backdrop of controversy of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, which was a Salvadoran immigrant based in Maryland, erroneously deported under court protections preventing such activities from taking place. The United States Supreme Court had ordered Trump administration to let him return but for Garcia, that is never assured as he claimed to belong to the MS-13 gang affiliation by his country’s government even though without the existence of a shred of proof.
In their meeting, Bukele told Trump that he would neither allow Garcia’s return nor his release in El Salvador. Trump reaffirmed his plan to concentrate on deporting “homegrown criminals,” hinting that extra facilities would be required to hold them.
