U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing the possibility of sending American citizens who commit crimes to El Salvador or other foreign countries.
Speaking alongside El Salvador President Nayib Bukele from the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, President Trump was asked by a reporter whether he's open to potentially deporting U.S. citizens.
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"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," President Trump responded. "What, do you think there's a special category of person? They're as bad as anybody that comes in — we have bad ones too. And I'm all for it."
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The president went on to say that he has "no problem" with sending a "home-grown criminal" to another country, adding that Attorney General Pam Bondi is currently studying the laws to find out if there is a legal way to do it.
"I'm talking about violent people," President Trump emphasized. "I'm talking about really bad people, really bad people — every bit as bad as the ones coming in."
Just days after President Trump took office, El Salvador agreed to accept criminal deportees from the U.S. of any nationality. Hundreds have since been transported to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, which is known for its brutal conditions.
Among them is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland husband and father who the U.S. government admittedly deported because of an "administrative error." While Abrego Garcia is from El Salvador, he was under a court order barring his removal due to credible fears he would be harmed if returned to his home country.
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Since then, the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" his return to the U.S. However, Bukele claimed Monday that he does not have the authority to return Abrego Garcia.
“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous," Bukele told reporters.
The Trump administration has claimed that Abrego Garcia is part of the MS-13 gang, an allegation Abrego Garcia's attorneys have denied. Attorney General Bondi, meanwhile, maintains that he was in the U.S. illegally.
