US President, Trump, eyes deportation of ‘home-grown’ criminals to El Salvador

The United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, that he hopes to start deporting criminals that hold US passports to El Salvador.

Trump told reporters that he would like to send violent “homegrown criminals” to be imprisoned under a deal with the Central American country’s government.

He made this comment as he welcomed El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday.

Trump told reporters last week that he “loved” the deportation idea, after Bukele said his country was open to housing US prisoners.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later confirmed that the proposal was on the table, saying Trump had “simply floated” the idea.

University of Notre Dame professor Erin Corcoran, an immigration law expert, said there is “no provision” under US law “that would allow the government to kick citizens out of the country”.

‘Build more prisons’

The US leader made the remarks as the controversy grew over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Garcia is a Salvadoran who was living in Maryland with his family.

He was granted protection from deportation by a court in 2019 before being shipped to CECOT.

The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.

However, the administration has said Garcia’s fate is up to El Salvador.

It has sought to maintain that he is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, despite a lack of evidence or any convictions.

On Monday, Bukele told Trump that he would neither return Abrego Garcia nor release him in El Salvador.

Trump said he was not interested in asking for Abrego Garcia to be released.

“Homegrown criminals are next,” the US president said to Bukele.

“I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns.

“You’ve got to build about five more places.”

President Donald Trump has proposed deporting certain violent U.S. citizens to El Salvador.

According to Al-jazeera, these include natural-born Americans convicted of serious crimes.

This suggestion arose during a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House on April 14, 2025.

Trump humorously remarked that Bukele would need to build “five more” prisons to accommodate additional prisoners.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that the proposal is still under legal review and remains an idea at this stage.

​El Salvador has previously agreed to house foreign criminals.

These include members of gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, in its maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).

This agreement has been controversial, with critics arguing that deporting U.S. citizens to foreign prisons would violate constitutional protections.

Legal experts highlight that U.S. law prohibits the deportation of citizens except in specific cases, such as terrorism or fraud during naturalization.

The Trump administration’s actions have already faced legal challenges.

In March 2025, over 250 alleged gang members were deported to El Salvador despite a U.S. federal judge’s ruling to halt the flights.

The administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law, to justify the deportations.

This move that has been widely criticized as unconstitutional. ​

This development raises significant legal and ethical questions about the treatment of U.S. citizens and the limits of executive power in immigration enforcement.

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