Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador

Team Trump Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador

Trump officials are talking internally about denaturalizing American citizens — and potentially sending some to El Salvador

By Nikki McCann Ramirez, Asawin Suebsaeng, Andrew Perez

April 12, 2025

Donald Trump and his White House have moved to deport green-card holders for espousing pro-Palestinian views, shipped hundreds of migrants to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison without due process (in defiance of a judge’s order), and are now publicly musing about sending United States citizens to prison in El Salvador.

Trump said last weekend he would “love” to send American criminals there — and would even be “honored” to, depending on “what the law says.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this week that the president has discussed this idea privately, too, adding he would only do this “if it’s legal.”

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has for months been offering to hold U.S. citizens in his country’s prison system, which he has turned into “a judicial black hole” rife with “systematic torture,” as one human rights advocate recently told Rolling Stone.

Legal experts agree that sending American citizens to prison in El Salvador would be flagrantly illegal under both U.S. and international law — and that the idea itself is shockingly authoritarian, with few parallels in our nation’s history.

The Trump administration is indeed discussing this idea behind the scenes, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone.

In their most serious form, these conversations have revolved around attempting to denaturalize American citizens and deport them to other countries, including El Salvador.

“You can’t deport U.S. citizens. There’s no emergency exception, there’s no special wartime authority, there’s no secret clause. You just can’t deport citizens,” says Steve Vladeck, a legal commentator and law professor at Georgetown.

“Whatever grounds they try to come up with for denaturalization or expatriation, the one thing that is absolutely undeniable is that people are entitled to individualized processes, before that process can be effectuated.”

President Trump: "I have suggested, why stop with people who come across the border illegally? We have some horrible criminals - American grown and born.

I think if we can get el Salvador or somebody to take them, but I'd have to see what the law says."

Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt: "The President has said, if it's legal, if there's a legal pathway to do that. He's not sure, we're not sure."

Chuck Todd: "I compare him to Anchor Man. There's a scene in Anchor Man where the women go, You know, he'll say anything you put it in the teleprompter. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

Donald Trump will accept any premise. You go up to him right now and say, Why isn't Japan a state? We won that war. We dropped two bombs - what are we doing?"

He'd say, Huh...you know you're right.

What's the headline? Donald Trump is thinking about annexing Japan."