Deportation of US citizens?

President Donald Trump has reiterated that he’d like to send  US 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 potential new arrivals. Trump’s administration has already deported immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT, known for its harsh conditions.  He has said his administration is trying to find “legal” ways to ship US 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 the move would likely be a violation of the American  Constitution for his administration to send any native-born citizen forcibly into an overseas prison. 

Here are the reasons: Immigrants can be deported from the United States, while citizens cannot. Deportation is covered by immigration law, which does not apply to  US citizens. Part of being a citizen means you cannot be forcibly sent to another country. The US  has sent people to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and elsewhere even when they are not citizens of those countries. Under international agreements, people cannot be sent to countries where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured.

Why does the  US want to send people to El Salvador?

Sending immigrants from countries like Venezuela to El Salvador sends a message to would-be migrants elsewhere about the risks of trying to make it to — or stay in — the US. There’s a second benefit to the administration: People sent to El Salvador are outside the jurisdiction of US courts. Judges, the administration argues, can’t order someone sent to El Salvador to be released or shipped back to the US because the  American government no longer has control of them.

A case in point is that of a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, sent erroneously to El Salvador. A Salvadoran immigrant, Abrego Garcia, has not been charged with a crime but was shipped to CECOT anyway.