After deporting 238 alleged members of Venezuelan gangs and 23 members of a Salvadoran gang to a prison of El Salvador of Maximum Security last month, the president of the United States, Donald Trump also there too also, there also, there also, there also, there also, there also, there also, there also, there also, there, also, Wells.
But Trump’s last plan will face multiple legal challenges. The sending of the head of American passports forced outside the country is probably illegal, experts say, and Trump himself signed an invoice duration in his first mandate that could make it difficult for such deportations to be even more difficult.
So, what is Trump’s plan, what are the legal challenges and it can be legal to deport an American citizen of the United States?
Who has deported Trump to El Salvador?
Last month, Trump deported 238 members of the Venezuelan gang, La Aragua, as well as the 23rd axis of the saving gang MS-13 to El Salvador.
These men are now bees heroes at the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Center for Atrination of Terrorism) or Cecot, a maximum security prison of 40,000 capacity in El Salvador.
To facilitate this, the Trump administration reached an agreement under which the United States government will pay El Salvador about $ 6 million to arrest the alleged members of Aragua for a year.
Trump also invoked a “zombie” law in times of war of 1798, the alien enemies law, to allow deportations. This law allows US presidents to stop or deport the duration of the war of non -citizens. Before Trump’s use, the Alien enemies Law has only invented three times: War duration of 1812, World War I and World War II.
The use of the law by Trump is controversial, since critics argue that the United States is not currently under a threat of “invasion” as results in war. An explanatory article of the Brennan Justice Center argued in 2024 to invoke the law “in peace to avoid the conventional immigration law would be internal abuse” and such attempt should be attacked by the courts.
Another point of controversy is that, as well as the alleged members of the gang, Trump also deported Kilmar Armando Abrego García, a 29 -year -old Salvadoran citizen who has lived in Maryland for 14 years and is married to an American citizen.
In 2019, Abrego García was arrested for the immigration and customs control of the United States in Maryland after an informant told the police that Abrego García was a MS-13 terrorist. Abrego García’s lawyers have denied this accusation, citing the lack of evidence that Abrego García is affiliated with MS-13.
Later, in 2019, an immigration judge granted Abrego García an immigration protection called “Removing the elimination”, which protected him from being returned to El Salvador and allowed him to remain in the United States.
The government has described its deportation as an “administrative error”, but still states that Abbego García has links with MS -13. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said he would not return to Abrego García, who is now a bees hero in Cecot, to the United States.
“The question is absurd. How can I smuggle a terrorist to the United States?” Bukele told journalists on Monday.
However, in an unpleasant order on Thursday, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a 9-0 decision that Trump should facilitate the return of Abrego García to the United States. The court currently includes a conservative majority of 6-3.
What has Trump said about deporting US citizens to El Salvador?
Trump received the president of El Salvador, Bukele, at the White House for bilateral conversations on Monday, the duration discussed by recent deportations and plans for more, this time of US citizens.
Trump told Bukele Duration the meeting: “I said that the landlords are the following, the local crazy people. You have to build about five more places.” By “Homegrowns”, Trump referred to criminals who have American citizenship.
The president of the United States told journalists on Monday after that meeting that hopes to deport US citizens who are criminals in El Salvador. Bukele said he would also be open to house American prisoners. Trump recognized, however, that would only be able to process with this plan if it is legal, and that would only deport citizens who are “violent criminals.”
“We always have to obey the laws, we also have local criminals that push people to the underground, who hit the old ladies on the back of the head with a baseball batting ball when they are not looking, which are absolute monsters.” Saying.
“I would like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you will have to look at the laws about it.”
Duration of a media conference on Tuesday, the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters that Trump “would only consider this [sending US citizens to El Salvador]If they are legal, for the Americans who are the most violent, atrocious and repeat offenders of the crime that no one in this room hens living in their communities.
Would it be illegal to deport US citizens?
When Fox News host, Jesse Watters, asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi on Tuesday if the plan to deport US citizens was legal, she said alone: ”These are Americans that he says they have committed the most atrocious crimes of our country, and crime will decrease dramatically because it has given us a directive for the United States to be safe again.
“These people must be locked as they can, while the law allows it. We are not going to let them go anywhere, and if we have to build more prisons in our country, we will.”
However, immigration law experts say the plan would not be legal. “No, hey [Trump] I can’t send US citizens to El Salvador, “said Human Rights Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith to Al Jazeera.
Bruce Fein, an American lawyer specialized in constitutional and international law, told Al Jazeera: “It would be unconscient to bring US citizens to a foreign country in imprisonment.”
What legal challenges could be done?
There are a number of legal challenges that could make Trump’s last idea unfeasible, which includes:
- Eighth amendment: This constitutional amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” CECOT is known for its recruitment of inmates, prohibiting visits, education and recreation compliance with multiple reports, including a statement of Human Rights Watch published in March 2025.
- Decimocula amendment: The fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States decrees that an American citizen cannot lose their citizenship unless they voluntarily deliver it. Being a citizen of a country implies that it cannot be forced from your country already sentence abroad.
- The first act of passage: This bill, approved by Congress and signed by Trump in 2018, includes a term that indicates that federal inmates must be hosted as close as possible to their homes. This is to make family visits, which is not allowed in CECOT, a softer process. The bill requires anyone who is far from home to move in a prison more than 800 km (500 miles).
Could Trump get adjustments to these legal challenges?
A legal escape that the Trump administration could operators is that, in rare cases, people who are not born in the United States but are naturalized can lose their citizenship.
A resident born abroad from a country can obtain citizenship due to naturalization after spending a certain amount of time in the country and generally demonstrating that they have assimilated in American culture. To become a naturalized American citizen, he must be more than 18 years old and has lived continuously in the US. As head of the green card for five years, or three years if he is married to an American citizen.
Naturalized citizens can lose their citizenship or denaturalize if they commit certain crimes, including terrorism, war crimes, human rights violations, sexual crimes or fraud. The denaturation can also happen to some who commit an act of betrayal against the United States, or some that run for a public office or join the military of a foreign country.
Fein told Al Jazeera that if an American citizen is imprisoned in a foreign country, the scenarios similar to the case of Abbego García could develop. “Trump was able to violate the Constitution in secret and then affirm that he was helpless to return the US citizen to the United States, similar to Abrego García,” he said.
“Foreign imprisonment would be immediately challenged in the Court and create another collision between article 2 and article 3, as we see that develops with Abbego García,” said Fein. Article 2 of the United States Constitution grants the president of the president of the United States, while article 3 places the Judiciary in the Supreme Court. In the case of Abrego García, the Supreme Court has decided that Abrego García should be returned to the United States, while the Trump administration does not plan to bring it back.
“The Constitution is under stress as never before from the civil war,” said Fein.
“The problem is how a United States court can enforce an order that it is illegal. Courts always depend on the good faith of relevant governments, and at a time of right populism, sometimes good faith is missing.