President Donald Trump has signaled his support for sending American citizens to El Salvador’s notorious super prison.
Why It Matters
The White House administration sent hundreds of people onboard two flights in March to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, despite a judge ordering the government to halt the planes. The Trump administration claimed the men were suspected of being part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order temporarily halting the government’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act while its actions were being challenged in court.
What To Know
The president reached an agreement with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele over suspected gang members being deported from the U.S. Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday evening that he was open to the idea of sending more detainees, including American citizens, to the country.
“I love that,” Trump said. “If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and hit people over the back of the head and purposely run people over in cars, if he would take them, I would be honored to give them.
“I don’t know what the law says on that,” he added. “I’m all for it. If they can house these horrible criminals for a lot less money than it costs us, I’m all for it.”
Trump said Bukele will visit him at the White House in the coming weeks and praised him for being “very tough on crime.”
The president recently invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used law from 1798 that grants broad presidential authority to detain and deport noncitizens during wartime.
His action targeted the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the United States is under invasion by criminal immigrants.
It comes after a federal judge described the U.S. government’s decision to arrest a Maryland man and transfer him to El Salvador’s infamous super prison as “wholly lawless,” in a legal opinion explaining her order requiring the Trump administration to return him to the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis rejected the Trump administration’s request to overturn her April 4 order Sunday, which mandates the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. She ruled that the “risk of harm shocks the conscience.” As a result, Abrego Garcia must return to the United States by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7.
Xinis rejected the Trump administration’s recent motion for a stay of preliminary injunction order in the case.
In the court filing, which was reviewed by Newsweek, she maintained her April 4 order, noting: “Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act].”
The administration claims that the man is an MS-13 gang member, which his wife denies.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday: “We have some horrible criminals, American grown and born. And if we have somebody that bops an old woman over the head, if we have somebody that is in jail 20 times who goes back and shoots people all over the place and then has a bad judge or a bad prosecutor that do nothing about him, all they worry about his politics, I don’t worry about that.
“I think if we could get El Salvador or somebody to take them, I’d be very happy with it. But I have to see what the law says.”
Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director of Detention Watch Network, which says it aims to abolish immigration detention in the U.S., wrote in a statement shared with Newsweek: “With Trump’s invocation of a 227-year-old law that Congress, courts, and presidents have apologized for, the Trump regime partnered with Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, to indefinitely imprison people shipped from the U.S. in his abusive mega prison with no due process.
“[Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem and Trump’s Department of Homeland Security are using the Salvadoran prison as a tool of propaganda with the core objective to dehumanize and villainize people while carrying out their cruel mass detention and deportation agenda unchecked. Bottom line, Trump and Bukele’s partnership deepens collaboration with authoritarian leaders, further jeopardizing democratic values in the U.S. and around the world.”
Barack Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “HE WANTS TO SEND AMERICAN CITIZENS TO A FOREIGN GULAG.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, said in a post on X: “A reminder: the Trump administration has revealed NO DETAILS of the pact with El Salvador. We literally know nothing about it, other than we’re paying them $6 million. No law in the United States authorizes us to pay another country to imprison people. And yet! They’re doing it.”
What Happens Next
The administration is expected to receive some legal pushback if it tries to ship U.S. citizens to El Salvador.
The post Donald Trump Says He Loves Idea of Sending Americans to El Salvador Prison appeared first on Newsweek.
