- President Donald Trump said he and Attorney General Pam Bondi are exploring the possibility of deporting violent U.S. citizens to a high-security prison in El Salvador. Trump reiterated this stance during a meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.
- While the U.S. has deported foreign gang members, the Constitution protects natural-born citizens from deportation, and naturalized citizens can only be deported if a court proves fraud in their citizenship process.
- Trump officials also said El Salvador won’t return a deported man despite a U.S. Supreme Court order.
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President Donald Trump said Monday, April 14, that he and Attorney General Pam Bondi are reviewing U.S. laws to determine whether his administration can deport U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to a prison in El Salvador.
Trump has made similar comments before and reiterated them Monday while meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele at the White House.
“If they’re criminals and if they hit people with baseball bats over the head that happen to be 90 years old. And if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yeah, yeah, that includes them. Do you think there’s a special category of person? They’re as bad as anybody who comes in,” Trump said.
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El Salvador prison already housing deported gang members
The federal government has already deported hundreds of suspected immigrant gang members to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center — also known as CECOT — a high-security mega-prison.
However, deporting a U.S. citizen would not be as straightforward as deporting foreigners.
US citizens protected from deportation under Constitution
The president cannot deport a U.S.-born citizen, as the Constitution protects natural-born citizens.
If the Trump administration wants to deport a naturalized U.S. citizen, there are routes it could take. However, a naturalized U.S. citizen who commits a crime is still protected from being deported.
The only way a naturalized U.S. citizen can be deported is if the federal government can prove fraud in a federal court — and the fraud must be directly tied to how that person obtained their citizenship.
Only the court would have the power to strip a person of citizenship, not the president or the attorney general.
Trump admin pushes back at Supreme Court order
The Trump administration deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran man living in Maryland, to El Salvador despite an order against his deportation.
On Thursday, April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return. However, Trump officials said Monday they couldn’t force El Salvador to return one of their citizens.
Trump and Bukele said the man would not be returning to the United States.
