'Need to be locked up:' Trump’s AG doesn’t rule out putting US citizens in foreign prisons

15 April

Washington D.C - January 15, 2025: Senate Judiciary Committee considers the nomination of Pamela Bondi for Attorney General. (Image: Shutterstock)

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to deny Tuesday if President Donald Trump’s proposal to hold U.S. citizens in offsite prisons was illegal, reports The Guardian.

“These are Americans who he is saying have committed the most heinous crimes in our country, and crime is going to decrease dramatically because he has given us a directive to make America safe again,” Bondi told Fox News host Jesse Watters. "These people need to be locked up as long as they can, as long as the law allows. We’re not going to let them go anywhere, and if we have to build more prisons in our country, we will do it."

Trump proposed holding U.S. citizens in El Salvador this week while hosting El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, who the U.S. has paid $6 million to incarcerate people in a controversial facility known for human rights abuses.

The U.S. president claimed “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” could be imprisoned in El Salvador. Bukele, who remains president of El Salvador despite the nation’s constitution making consecutive presidential terms illegal, appeared intrigued with the notion.

Trump said he “loved” the idea of deporting U.S. citizens, but his press secretary Karoline Leavitt, claimed “simply floated” the possibility. She later told reporters the president was “looking into” the legality of it and said Trump was only considering the action for U.S. citizens “who are the most violent, egregious repeat offenders of crime.”

Lawyers and experts disagree.

University of Notre Dame Professor Erin Corcoran told Reuters: "There is no provision under US law that would allow the government to kick citizens out of the country.”

Read the full Guardian article at this link.

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