Topline
President Donald Trump said on Fox Tuesday he “would love to” deport American criminals to be imprisoned in El Salvador, repeating a controversial idea he spoke about Monday when meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
President Donald Trump, and Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, during a meeting in the Oval … More
The Washington Post via Getty ImagesKey Facts
In a Fox Noticias interview with Rachel Campos-Duffy—wife of Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy—Trump said he was “very impressed” with Bukele for his help in deporting criminals and with the prisons he has, leading Campos-Duffy to ask if prisons in El Salvador could be used “for our own violent criminals.”
Trump said he calls U.S. violent criminals “homegrown criminals” and that his administration is “looking into it, and we want to do it. I would love to do that.”
Trump defined “homegrown criminals” as “the ones that grew up and something went wrong and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat … and push people into subways, just before the train gets there, like you see happening sometimes.”
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News Peg
On Monday, when Bukele was at the White House, Trump said “homegrown criminals are next” before reporters were in the room for their briefing, according to a live stream posted by Bukele’s office, and said Bukele would need “to build about five more places.” Trump then addressed the idea with reporters, saying he would “like to include [American criminals]
in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you’ll have to be looking at the laws on that.” He said Attorney General Pam Bondi is “studying” whether it’s legal, USA Today reported.
Is It Legal To Deport American Criminals?
Experts say there is no legal pathway to deport a U.S.-born citizen. There are some circumstances in which naturalized citizens can be deported, but it is rare and usually reserved for people who lied during the naturalization process, Time reported. Erin Corcoran, an immigration law expert and professor at the University of Notre Dame, told Reuters there is “no provision under U.S. law that would allow the government to kick citizens out of the country,” and other legal experts have echoed that, with one telling NBC News the idea “is pretty obviously illegal and unconstitutional.”
Key Background
Trump has sent more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison known for human rights violations in El Salvador as part of a deal in which the U.S. pays El Salvador $6 million for their imprisonment for one year. The deportations have become a key focus for critics of the Trump administration, though, as a number of people have allegedly been deported mistakenly, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported because of a “clerical error” on March 15. The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, but Bondi said Monday that simply meant if El Salvador wanted to return him, the U.S. had to provide a plane. During Bukele’s visit Monday, Bukele said he would not return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. and said it was a “preposterous” suggestion as he doesn’t “have the power to return him.”
What To Watch For
Trump’s full interview with Campos-Duffy airs at 4 p.m. EDT on Fox Noticias.
Further Reading
Trump Administration Claims It Would Have To ‘Kidnap’ Erroneously Deported Maryland Dad From El Salvador (Forbes)
‘Obviously illegal’: Experts pan Trump’s plan to deport ‘homegrown criminals’ (NBC News)
Trump open to sending violent American criminals to El Salvador prisons (Fox News)
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