President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to suggest to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele that the U.S. deportation push could extend to American citizens.
“You know what I want them to do? Homegrown criminals are next,” Trump said to Bukele on a hot mic before they met in the Oval Office. “You’ve got to build about five more places.”
“Yeah, we’ve got space,” Bukele responded.
Trump doubled down on the idea in front of reporters later in the day:
“We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters,” Trump said. “I’d like to include them.”
It’s not clear whom exactly Trump wants to send to El Salvador, where Bukele has conducted mass imprisonments of people he calls gang members, prompting human rights abuse allegations. The president does not have the authority to deport U.S. citizens, but he has openly discussed the possibility several times in recent weeks. Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wanted to deport “heinous, violent criminals” who are U.S. citizens to El Salvador “if there’s a legal pathway to do that.” Trump said Monday that Attorney General Pam Bondi is “studying the law.”
