Washington, April 17:— The Trump administration is considering a controversial proposal to deport violent U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador, igniting a firestorm over its legality and potential violations of constitutional rights.
During a recent conversation with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, former President Donald Trump floated the idea of using the country’s CECOT mega-prison to house what he called “homegrown criminals.” “The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places,” Trump told Bukele, while adding, “We always have to obey the laws.”
Trump described the potential deportees as violent offenders, referring to Americans “that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat… monsters.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that the plan, if pursued, would target “the most violent, egregious, repeat offenders of crime who nobody… wants living in their communities.”
Legal scholars have sharply pushed back. “This would be obviously unconstitutional, obviously illegal,” said David Bier of the Cato Institute. “There is no authority in U.S. law to deport citizens and imprison them in foreign countries.”
Bier also warned that Trump’s prior record raises concerns about bypassing legal safeguards. “The problem is, he already has illegally deported hundreds of people by just not giving the courts an opportunity to stop him,” Bier said. “That’s the real fear now—that he will try to evade judicial review even for U.S. citizens.”
President Bukele reportedly expressed willingness to accept U.S. citizens into Salvadoran prisons. “Yeah, we’ve got space,” he said.
The Trump administration has previously deported over 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador, raising alarms about due process violations and lack of judicial oversight.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the concept, suggesting it could drastically reduce crime. “Crime is going to decrease dramatically,” she said.
But constitutional law experts remain skeptical. Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, warned the policy would strip citizens of their fundamental rights. “Trump’s plan would leave citizens vulnerable to being kidnapped by masked agents of the United States government and imprisoned without recourse,” he said.
While the administration maintains it would only proceed if the plan is deemed lawful, critics argue the very premise is legally unsound and morally dangerous.
Read more: Nations Must Take Back Illegal Immigrants: Jaishankar on US Deportations
