Trump says he wants to imprison US citizens in El Salvador. That’s likely illegal

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated that he d like to send U S citizens who commit violent crimes to prison in El Salvador telling that country s president Nayib Bukele that he d have to build five more places to hold the prospective new arrivals Trump s administration has already deported immigrants to El Salvador s notorious mega-prison CECOT known for its harsh conditions The president has also reported his administration is trying to find legal methods to ship U S citizens there too Trump on Monday insisted these would just be violent people implying they would be those already convicted of crimes in the United States though he s also floated it as a punishment for those who attack Tesla dealerships to protest his administration and its patron billionaire Elon Musk But it would likely be a violation of the U S Constitution for his administration to send any native-born citizen forcibly into an overseas prison Indeed it would likely even violate a provision of a law Trump himself signed during his first term Here s a look at the notion of sending U S citizens to prison in a foreign country why it s likely not legal and several viable legal loopholes If it s legal to do to immigrants why not citizens Immigrants can be deported from the United States while citizens cannot Deportation is covered by immigration law which does not apply to U S citizens Part of being a citizen means you cannot be forcibly sent to another country Immigrants can be removed and that s what s been happening in El Salvador The country is taking both its own citizens that the United States is sending as well as those from Venezuela and potentially other countries that will not take their own citizens back from the U S The Venezuelans sent there last month had no opportunity to respond to evidence against them or appear before a judge That s the deal the Trump administration signed with Bukele The U S has sent people to El Salvador Costa Rica Panama and elsewhere even when they are not citizens of those countries But under international agreements people cannot be sent to countries where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured Prisoners look out from their cell at the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca El Salvador Friday April during a tour by the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister AP Photo Salvador Melendez Why does the Trump administration want to send people to El Salvador Bukele calls himself the world s coolest dictator and has cracked down on human rights during his administration He s also turned El Salvador from one of the world s bulk violent countries into a fairly safe one Trump has embraced that example including during the Oval Office visit Monday Sending immigrants from countries like Venezuela to El Salvador sends a message to would-be immigrants elsewhere about the risks of trying to make it to or stay in the United States Related Articles US moves ahead on tariffs with investigations into computer chips and pharmaceuticals Yadira Caraveo will run for the seat she lost in November this time as challenger to U S Rep Gabe Evans Trump administration freezes billion in grants to Harvard over campus activism El Salvador President Bukele says he won t be releasing a Maryland man back to the US Jury selected for Sarah Palin s libel suit against The New York Times There s a second benefit to the administration People sent to El Salvador are outside the jurisdiction of United States courts Judges the administration argues can t order someone sent to El Salvador to be disclosed or shipped back to the U S because the U S regime no longer has control of them It s a probable legal loophole that led Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to issue a grim warning in her opinion in a - U S Supreme Court finding that the administration could not fly alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador with no court hearing even after Trump invoked an th century law last used during World War II to claim wartime powers The implication of the Authorities s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets forced onto planes and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress Sotomayor warned She was writing to dissent from the majority taking the affair from the federal judge who had initially barred the administration from any deportations and had ordered planes en course to El Salvador turned around an order the administration apparently ignored A second occurrence highlights the risks of sending people to El Salvador The administration admits it sent a Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia erroneously to El Salvador A Salvadoran immigrant Abrego Garcia who has not been charged with a crime had an order against deportation but was shipped to CECOT anyway On Monday Bukele and Trump scoffed at the idea of sending him back even though the U S Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return President Donald Trump left greets El Salvador s President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House Monday April in Washington AP Photo Manuel Balce Ceneta Wait so can they send citizens to El Salvador Nothing like this has ever been contemplated in U S history but it seems unlikely There are other legal blockades besides the fact that you cannot deport U S citizens The United States does have extradition treaties with several countries where it will send a citizen accused of a crime in that country to face trial there That appears to be the only existing way a U S citizen can be forcibly removed from the country under current law The Constitution also prohibits cruel and strange punishment and one of CECOT s selling points is that conditions there are far harsher than in prisons in the U S As noted above federal courts have no jurisdiction there and that may deprive people sent there of the constitutional guarantee of due process of law It is illegal to expatriate U S citizens for a crime wrote Lauren-Brooke Eisen of the Brennan Center for Social Justice in New York She noted that even if the administration tries to transfer federal prisoners there arguing they re already incarcerated it could run afoul of the First Step Act that Trump himself championed and signed in The provision requires that the leadership try to house federal inmates as close to their homes as doable so their families can visit them and indeed transfer anyone housed farther than miles from their home to a closer facility One last loophole There is one foreseen loophole that the administration could use to send a small group of citizens to El Salvador They can try to strip the citizenship of people who earned it after immigrating to the United States People who were made U S citizens after birth can lose that status for a handful of offenses like funding terrorist organizations or lying on naturalization forms They would then revert to green card holders and would be potentially eligible for deportation if convicted of other serious crimes That s a small but real pool of people Perhaps the majority of critical thing about it is that it would require loss of citizenship first In other words there s still likely no legal way to force a citizen out of the country But a scant could end up in legal jeopardy anyway