Donald Trump provided a startling answer when questioned in an interview about his stance on transferring ‘homegrown criminals’ to prisons in other nations.
The Trump administration has intensified efforts on immigration, leading to the detainment and deportation of non-citizens, occasionally unjustly. Now, Trump has proposed that individuals born in the US might also face being sent abroad.
During an interview with Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy, who is married to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, for the Spanish-language program Fox Noticias, Trump made this suggestion.
Campos-Duffy inquired whether Trump’s strategy could apply to “our own violent criminals.”
Trump answered: “I call them home-grown criminals… the ones that grew up and something went wrong.”
He further disclosed that his administration is exploring the possibility of sending American criminals to foreign prisons, stating: “We want to do it.”
He expressed his personal stance by stating: “I would love to do that.”
These remarks coincide with Trump’s announcement on April 14, where he mentioned that Attorney General Pam Bondi is ‘studying the law’ regarding the deportation of ‘homegrown criminals’, and added: “If we can do that, that’s good.”
During a meeting with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Trump stated the US ‘always [has] to obey the laws’, but commented: “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. I’d like to include them.”
Legal experts have responded to this proposal, asserting that deporting US citizens would be ‘unconstitutional’.
Emma Winger, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, informed NBC News that immigration law, which empowers the government to deport individuals, does not encompass US citizens.
Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University College of Law, remarked: “I can’t see how exiling someone is permissible as part of the bundle of rights that are fundamental to citizenship — doubly so if the effort to house American citizens overseas means turning a person over to a foreign authority.”
David Bier, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, succinctly noted: “US citizens may not be deported to imprisonment abroad. There is no authority for that in any US law.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt commented on Trump’s intentions, stating the president is interested in deporting ‘heinous, violent criminals’ who hold US citizenship ‘if there’s a legal pathway to do that’.