White House explores legality of sending US citizens to El Salvador jail: Trump says 'would love to...'
World | Bukele made the extraordinary offer to take in prisoners from the United States shortly after Trump's inauguration for a second term
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Tuesday that they are "looking into" the legality of sending US citizens to prisons in El Salvador.
On being asked by a reporter if the White House believes it has the power to deport American citizens to Central America prisons or if it has to change the law to do so, Leavitt said: "It's another question that the president has raised."
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"It's a legal question that the president is looking into," Leavitt said, further adding that President Donald Trump "would only consider this, if legal, for Americans who are the most violent, egregious, repeat offenders of crime who nobody in this room wants living in their communities."
During the presser, Leavitt was also asked to explain the legal basis for sending citizens to El Salvador prisons, she said: "We're looking at it."
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Trump would 'love' to do it
Trump said that he would "love" to deport "homegrown" US citizens who commit violent crimes to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
"I call them homegrown criminals," Trump said according to excerpts of an interview with Fox Noticias, a Spanish-language program being broadcast later Tuesday.
"The ones that grew up and something went wrong and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat and push people into subways," he added.
"We are looking into it and we want to do it. I would love to do it."
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The idea was discussed during Trump's Monday meeting at the Oval Office with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele as he said that he would need more prisons in El Salvador to house the "criminals" the US would send.
"I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places," Trump told Bukele at the meeting.
Watch this report:
Bukele made the extraordinary offer to take in prisoners from the United States shortly after Trump's inauguration for a second term.
Trump has already sent more than 250 migrants there, mostly under a centuries-old wartime law that deprives them of due process -- in exchange for a fee of $6 million paid to El Salvador.