Trump Says He’d Like to Deport Some US Citizens to El Salvador

The president said his administration would be examining relevant laws.

President Donald Trump on April 14 said he’s in favor of deporting some U.S. citizens who have committed crimes, drawing criticism from Democrats.

“I don’t know what the laws are—we always have to obey the laws—but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters,” Trump told reporters at the White House in Washington.

“I‘d like to include them 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 added.

Trump confirmed later that he was talking about including U.S. citizens among the people being deported.

“If they’re criminals and if they hit people with baseball bats over their head … and if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yes, that includes them,” he said. “Why, do you think they’re a special category of person? They’re as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones too.”

Trump was speaking during a meeting with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose country is housing hundreds of illegal immigrants deported from the United States.

Bukele previously offered to house citizens of any nationality in El Salvador’s prisons.

As Trump and Bukele entered the room, the president said that “homegrown criminals are next. He said that El Salvador would have to ”build about five more places.”

Bukele responded, “we’ve got space.”

The U.S. Constitution gives citizens protection and courts have ruled that Americans who commit crimes retain their citizenship. People who are naturalized, on the other hand, can lose their citizenship if they’ve been found to illegally procure the naturalization, some rulings determined.

“It is illegal to expatriate U.S. citizens for a crime. In fact, U.S. citizens can only be stripped of citizenship if they knowingly perform acts resulting in a voluntary relinquishment of citizenship such as a ‘formal renunciation of nationality in the United States during a time of war’ or ‘leaving or remaining outside the United States during a time of war or national emergency to avoid military service,’ Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice, wrote in a blog post.

Democrats decried Trump’s comments.

“Floating the idea of sending U.S. citizens to foreign prisons where hundreds have died is an outrageous attack on our Constitution and democracy,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) wrote on the social media platform X.

“It’s a dangerous, unconstitutional proposal that flies in the face of everything our nation stands for. In America, citizenship is a right, not a privilege that can be revoked on a whim. We don’t exile our own—we uphold the rule of law,” added Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.).

The remarks came after the Trump administration deported at least 288 illegal immigrants, many natives of Venezuela, to El Salvador. Officials say that group includes members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.

The U.S. government has paid El Salvador about $6 million to house the people in its prison system, according to the White House.

One of those deported, El Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was sent to his home country despite a judicial order forbidding officials from sending him there. Officials have said the deportation was in error but the Trump administration said Monday it does not have the authority to return Garcia to the United States.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said as Trump and Bukele met. “That’s not up to us.”

Bukele said that his country would not be returning Garcia, whom a U.S. judge said was “a verified member of MS-13,” which Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele said.

Asked whether he would release Garcia into El Salvador, Bukele said no.

Lawyers for Garcia have said that the administration must take steps to secure the release of their client in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The federal judge overseeing Garcia’s case has not yet ruled on their motion.