President Trump on Monday indicated he would be open to sending American citizens who are violent criminals to El Salvador to be held in a notorious prison there, telling reporters his administration is studying law on the matter.
“If they’re criminals, and if they hit people with baseball bats over the head that happen to be 90 years old, if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yeah. Yeah that includes them,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Why, do you think there’s a special category of person? They’re as bad as anyone that comes in. We have bad ones, too. And, I’m all for it.”
Trump did not specify which cases he was referring to. There is a widely reported case of an 82-year-old Brooklyn woman who was raped in her home. The suspect was an 18-year-old at the time and was found guilty a year later.
Trump’s comments came during a meeting with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. Bukele has worked with the Trump administration to take in hundreds of deportees, including many not from El Salvador, and hold them in a massive prison that has drawn criticism from human rights watchdogs.
Trump framed the potential deportation of violent American citizens as a way to save money.
“If it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem,” Trump said. “Now, we’re studying the laws right now. Pam is studying. If we can do that, that’s good. And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in.”
Experts have said that there is no legal way for the government to deport legal U.S. citizens to another country. Still, Trump and other administration officials have raised the idea multiple times in recent months, sparking alarm among Democrats and legal experts.
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