Trump Eyes Sending Violent U.S. Citizens to El Salvador \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ President Trump suggested sending violent U.S. citizens to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT, reigniting constitutional and legal concerns. Experts say deporting citizens is likely illegal, though loopholes exist for naturalized individuals. Critics argue the proposal violates due process and human rights protections.
Quick Looks
- Trump proposes sending violent U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador.
- El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison known for extreme conditions.
- Constitution prohibits deporting or expatriating native-born U.S. citizens.
- Trump says only “violent people” would be sent abroad.
- Legal experts say plan violates due process and cruel punishment clauses.
- Citizens can’t be removed under immigration laws like noncitizens.
- Supreme Court previously ruled deportations without hearings are unconstitutional.
- Justice Sotomayor warned such tactics endanger basic rights.
- Extradition is the only legal method to send citizens abroad.
- Naturalized citizens could face denaturalization in limited cases.
Deep Look
President Donald Trump once again sparked legal and ethical controversy this week by doubling down on his proposal to send violent U.S. citizens to prison in El Salvador. Speaking alongside Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during a visit to Washington, Trump joked that Bukele would have to “build five more places” to hold American prisoners. But behind the bravado lies a deeply troubling and likely unconstitutional policy.
The Trump administration has already deported undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers to El Salvador’s CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo), the country’s notorious mega-prison widely criticized for its harsh and dehumanizing conditions. Now, Trump says he’s exploring “legal ways” to send Americans there, too.
While Trump insists only violent criminals would be targeted, legal scholars and human rights advocates say the move could amount to forced exile, a concept that has no legal precedent in U.S. history — and could violate multiple constitutional protections, including due process and the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“It is illegal to expatriate U.S. citizens for a crime,” wrote Lauren-Brooke Eisen of the Brennan Center for Justice.
Why Immigrants Can Be Deported — But Citizens Can’t
Under current U.S. law, immigrants can be deported for certain crimes or violations of immigration status. Citizens, however, cannot be deported — deportation laws simply do not apply to them. That includes both native-born and naturalized citizens, unless the latter are found to have obtained citizenship fraudulently or through disqualifying behavior such as funding terrorism.
Sending noncitizens to CECOT or similar facilities abroad has already drawn condemnation. Many of those removed — including Venezuelans — were denied hearings or access to legal counsel, raising human rights concerns. The Trump administration struck deals with El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama to accept migrants, even when they were not nationals of those countries.
But none of that applies to U.S. citizens. Deporting them, even if convicted of violent crimes, would likely violate both domestic law and international treaties prohibiting forced exile and torture.
Trump’s Legal Gamble: A Constitutional Minefield
So, how could the Trump administration attempt to justify such an extraordinary action?
Legal observers point to the administration’s desire to sidestep U.S. judicial oversight. Once a person is in a foreign prison, U.S. courts would struggle to exert jurisdiction — essentially placing them beyond the reach of American law.
It’s this potential loophole that prompted Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to issue a stark warning in a previous immigration case. The administration had tried to send Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador without hearings, invoking an 18th-century wartime power statute. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the move.
“The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also U.S. citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons,” Sotomayor wrote.
That case arose after a federal judge ordered planes bound for El Salvador to turn around, an order the Trump administration reportedly ignored.
The Abrego Garcia Mistake and Its Implications
A real-world example of the risks came with the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident and Salvadoran immigrant with protected status who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Though he had no criminal record and had a standing court order blocking his removal, Abrego Garcia was sent to CECOT.
Despite a Supreme Court ruling ordering his return, neither Trump nor Bukele expressed intent to comply. The administration refused to explain how the wrongful deportation occurred or what steps, if any, were being taken to bring him back.
This case has only heightened fears that citizens could be next, especially in a system where legal safeguards are increasingly under pressure.
Would It Ever Be Legal? One Narrow Loophole
The only theoretical path to deporting a U.S. citizen lies in denaturalization — the legal process of stripping citizenship from someone who obtained it after birth. This can occur under rare circumstances, such as fraud, terrorism financing, or lying on immigration forms.
Once denaturalized, that individual would revert to noncitizen status and could be subject to removal — but even then, they would retain some due process rights.
Trump has hinted that protesters — including those opposing his administration’s ties to Elon Musk’s Tesla — might be considered for such extreme measures, though experts caution that such political targeting would almost certainly be unconstitutional.
The First Step Act: Trump’s Own Law in Conflict
Even if the administration argued that already-incarcerated individuals could be transferred abroad, the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill signed by Trump in 2018, presents another obstacle. The law includes a provision mandating that prisoners be housed as close to their home communities as possible to support family connections and rehabilitation.
CECOT, thousands of miles away and outside U.S. oversight, would likely violate that requirement — not to mention put those incarcerated at risk of torture, abuse, or indefinite detention in a system with no transparency.
Conclusion: A Dangerous Precedent in the Making?
The Trump administration’s proposal to send American citizens to foreign prisons like El Salvador’s CECOT is more than controversial — it’s likely illegal, unconstitutional, and could trigger a crisis in civil liberties.
Even with narrow legal loopholes related to naturalized citizens, the U.S. has never forcibly expatriated its own people as punishment. Doing so would challenge the very foundation of citizenship rights, due process, and the rule of law.
What Trump is proposing may serve as political theater or deterrence messaging — but if implemented, it could open the door to a precedent that no democracy should tolerate.
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