Trump Administration Pushes Boundaries with "Homegrowns" Deportation Policy
In a stunning escalation of his hardline immigration stance, President Donald Trump has revealed plans to deport American citizens convicted of violent crimes to El Salvador's maximum-security prison. During a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House, Trump explicitly stated his intention to target "homegrown criminals," urging Bukele to "build about five more places" to accommodate them.
"We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals... absolute monsters," Trump told reporters, singling out those who "push people into subways" or "hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat." This controversial proposal follows the administration's earlier deportation of 238 alleged Venezuelan gang members and 23 Salvadoran gang members to El Salvador's CECOT prison.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is reportedly "studying if we can do that," according to Trump, who clarified he's targeting "violent people" and "really bad people." The administration has not specified how many Americans could potentially be affected by this policy.
El Salvador's Involvement and Prison Conditions
The cornerstone of this arrangement is El Salvador's Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), a massive 40,000-capacity maximum-security prison where detainees face severely restricted rights and alarming conditions. The U.S. State Department has already allocated $6 million to fund the incarceration of hundreds of immigrants deported from the United States in this facility.
Human Rights Watch has documented extensive abuses at CECOT, including torture, beatings, forced submersion in ice water, and prolonged isolation. "CECOT is a facility that exposes prisoners to torture, and cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment and punishment," stated Charles Blaha, a former State Department official.
Detainees at CECOT are denied communication with relatives and lawyers, restricted to leaving their cells for only 30 minutes daily, and sometimes held in complete darkness. Adding to the human rights concerns, no independent monitoring is permitted, as attorneys and families are barred from visiting.
El Salvador's President Bukele has expressed enthusiasm for the arrangement, telling Trump, "Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate. But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some."
Legal Experts Unanimously Reject Constitutionality
Constitutional scholars and human rights advocates have unanimously condemned the proposal as unconstitutional, citing multiple legal barriers to implementing such a policy.
"It's obviously unconstitutional, obviously illegal. There's no authority in any U.S. law to deport U.S. citizens and certainly not to imprison them in a foreign country," stated David Bier at the Cato Institute.
Legal experts point to several constitutional protections that would be violated by such deportations:
- The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that citizens cannot be stripped of their citizenship or deported against their will
- The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which many argue would apply to conditions in CECOT
- The First Step Act mandates that federal inmates be housed near their homes to facilitate family visits
"You may not deport a U.S. citizen, period," emphasized ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, noting that legal precedent and court rulings would block such plans.
Lauren-Brooke Eisen of the Brennan Center for Justice added, "There are profound ethical questions... Courts will almost certainly prevent this from happening."
The Kilmar Abrego Garcia Case: A Warning Signal
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen wrongfully deported to CECOT despite having protected status in the U.S., illustrates the potential dangers of expanded deportation policies.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old who lived in Maryland for 14 years, was mistakenly deported on March 15 despite having "withholding from removal" status. The Department of Justice admitted this was an "administrative error," yet he remains in El Salvador's prison.
His case has already triggered multiple court rulings:
- U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered his return to the U.S.
- The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this order
- The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the administration must "facilitate" his release
Despite these rulings, President Bukele declared on April 14 that he would not return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., creating a diplomatic and constitutional standoff.
$6 Million Payment Raises Legal Questions
Compounding concerns, the $6 million payment by the U.S. State Department to fund the incarceration of deported immigrants at CECOT likely violates the Leahy Law, according to experts. This law prohibits U.S. funds from supporting foreign security forces credibly accused of gross human rights violations.
"Sending migrants who have not been charged or convicted of any crime to the maximum-security terrorism prison in El Salvador, where they have no access to lawyers or their families... would certainly appear to violate the Leahy Law," said Tim Rieser, the main author of the Leahy Law.
Political Reactions and Future Implications
The proposal has ignited fierce political debate. While former President Biden has not directly addressed this specific deportation policy in his recent public appearances, focusing instead on Social Security concerns, many Democratic lawmakers have voiced opposition.
The policy represents a significant escalation in Trump's approach to both immigration and criminal justice, potentially creating precedents that could reshape the relationship between U.S. citizenship and constitutional protections.
If implemented, this proposal would:
- Challenge fundamental constitutional principles about citizenship rights
- Create complex diplomatic tensions with countries hosting American prisoners
- Potentially expose U.S. citizens to conditions international organizations have described as torture
- Establish troubling precedents for how the executive branch can circumvent judicial oversight
Constitutional Crisis Looms as Policy Takes Shape
As the Trump administration pursues this unprecedented deportation strategy, a constitutional crisis appears inevitable. The contradiction between executive authority, congressional oversight, and judicial review is creating a perfect storm of legal challenges.
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia already demonstrates the administration's willingness to resist judicial orders, raising profound questions about separation of powers in immigration enforcement.
Will this controversial policy survive inevitable court challenges, or will constitutional protections for American citizens ultimately prevail? The answer may redefine the boundaries of executive power and citizenship rights for generations to come.
Alleged gang members detained at CECOT, the Center for Terrorism Confinement in El Salvador. (Getty Images)###
