Bondi sidesteps questions about Trump proposal to deport U.S. citizens to El Salvador

Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged President Donald Trump’s Monday comments about sending incarcerated U.S. citizens to El Salvador while she spoke with Fox News’ Jesse Watters later that evening. The Americans Trump referenced are dangerous criminals convicted of heinous crimes and need to be locked up as long as legally possible, she said. If more U.S. prisons need to be built to hold them, then that’s what will happen, she added.

What did Trump say? Trump’s comments came during a White House media engagement with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, where the pair fielded questions around the recent mass criminal deportations. Trump hinted at expanding the current agreement with El Salvador to start deporting egregious offenders with U.S. citizenship. The president clarified he would only go through with the idea if it was legal.

Is it legal? A number of legal commentators quickly noted that U.S. law does not allow the government to forcibly remove citizens from the country. However, foreign-born citizens convicted of treason have been deported after having their citizenship stripped, according to reporting by Reuters.

The administration is already facing heat for accidentally deporting a Salvadoran man living in the United States to the high-security Salvadoran terrorist prison. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not a U.S. citizen, but lived in the United States for several years, married a U.S. citizen and ultimately had a child. He was arrested by ICE in 2019 and later accused of being a member of MS-13. A federal judge later issued an order shielding him from deportation based on the likelihood that he would face gang persecution if he returned to El Salvador. The Trump administration later admitted to deporting him earlier this year through what it characterized as an administrative error, but insists that he is a member of MS-13.

Dig deeper: Read my report about El Salvador’s president refusing to return the man living in Maryland who was accidentally deported.