Trump Proposes to Send U.S. Offenders to Prisons in El Salvador

President Donald Trump has ignited a new wave of controversy by publicly suggesting that American citizens convicted of violent crimes could be sent to serve their sentences in El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).

Image: Anadolu via Getty Images

The proposal, made during a White House meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, has drawn sharp criticism from legal experts and civil rights advocates, who warn that such a move would likely violate the U.S. Constitution and international human rights standards.

During the Oval Office discussion, Trump praised CECOT as a “strong facility” and floated the idea of expanding its use beyond foreign nationals to include “homegrown criminals”—a term he used to describe Americans convicted of violent offenses.

“We must adhere to the laws, but we also have domestic criminals who assault people in subways, who strike elderly women from behind with a baseball bat when they are unsuspecting, who are truly monstrous,” Trump said, adding, “I would like to count them among those to be removed from the country, but we will need to examine the laws regarding that”.

The president’s remarks were captured in a video that quickly circulated on social media, showing Trump telling Bukele, “Homegrowns are next. You gotta build about five more places. ... It’s not big enough.” The exchange, which was met with laughter in the room, has since fueled widespread debate online, with some users expressing alarm over the implications for civil liberties and due process.

The Trump administration has already sent hundreds of non-citizen migrants with alleged criminal ties to CECOT under a $6 million agreement with El Salvador’s government.

However, extending this policy to U.S. citizens would mark an unprecedented shift in American criminal justice and immigration practices. Legal scholars emphasize that deporting or transferring American citizens to serve sentences abroad would almost certainly run afoul of constitutional protections, including the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the right to due process.

Lauren-Brooke Eisen, a legal expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, noted that “it is illegal to expatriate U.S. citizens for a crime,” and that even relocating federal inmates to a foreign facility could violate the First Step Act, a law signed by Trump himself that requires federal prisoners to be housed as close to their families as possible.

Human rights organizations have also raised alarms about the harsh conditions at CECOT, where inmates are denied visitation, recreation, and educational opportunities, and reports of overcrowding and mistreatment are common.

President Bukele, for his part, has positioned El Salvador’s mega-prison as a centerpiece of his aggressive anti-gang campaign, and has expressed willingness to accept U.S. prisoners under certain conditions.

Yet, the legal and ethical ramifications of such an arrangement remain deeply contentious.