Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship #USCitizens to #ElSalvador
Trump officials are talking internally about #denaturalizing #AmericanCitizens — and potentially sending some to #ElSalvador
By Nikki McCann Ramirez, Asawin Suebsaeng, Andrew Perez - April 12, 2025
"Donald #Trump and his White House have moved to deport #GreenCard holders for espousing #ProPalestinian views, shipped hundreds of #migrants to a notorious #Salvadoran #MegaPrison without due process (in defiance of a judge’s order), and are now publicly musing about sending United States citizens to prison in El Salvador.
"Trump said last weekend he would 'love' to send American criminals there — and would even be 'honored' to, depending on 'what the law says.' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this week that the president has discussed this idea privately, too, adding he would only do this 'if it’s legal.'
"El Salvador’s president, #Nayi Bukele, has for months been offering to hold U.S. citizens in his country’s prison system, which he has turned into 'a judicial black hole' rife with 'systematic #torture,' as one #HumanRights advocate recently told Rolling Stone.
"Legal experts agree that sending American citizens to prison in El Salvador would be flagrantly illegal under both U.S. and international law — and that the idea itself is shockingly #authoritarian, with few parallels in our nation’s history.
"The Trump administration is indeed discussing this idea behind the scenes, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone. In their most serious form, these conversations have revolved around attempting to denaturalize American citizens and deport them to other countries, including El Salvador.
" 'You can’t deport U.S. citizens. There’s no emergency exception, there’s no special wartime authority, there’s no secret clause. You just can’t deport citizens,' says Steve Vladeck, a legal commentator and law professor at Georgetown.
" 'Whatever grounds they try to come up with for denaturalization or #expatriation, the one thing that is absolutely undeniable is that people are entitled to individualized processes, before that process can be effectuated.'
"In the United States, the grounds to strip a naturalized individual of their citizenship encompass serious material offenses. They include: committing #treason or #terrorism, enlisting in a foreign military engaged in opposition to the United States, or lying in applications for citizenship or as part of the naturalization process."
Read more:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-el-salvador-us-citizens-denaturalization-1235315975/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/xliRd
