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Donald Trump was heard speaking about the possibility of jailing U.S. citizens in El Salvador with President Nayib Bukele.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Department of State, via email, for comment.
The Context
Bukele, who has agreed to continue jailing immigrants removed from the United States, was at the White House on Monday.
His visit came after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, 29, a Maryland father who sent to El Salvador on March 15, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting the return to his home country for fear of persecution by a gang there.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said he is a member of MS-13.
What To Know
Just before entering the Oval Office, Trump said "home growns" should be next. He said: "The home growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough."
"I just asked the president — it's this massive complex that he built, jail complex — I said, 'Can you build some more of them please?' As many as we can get out of our country," he told reporters.
Pressed on whether that means deporting American citizens to El Salvador, he said: "I'm all for it."
He added: "If they're criminals, and if they hit people with baseball bats over the head that happen to be 90 years old, if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yeah, yeah that includes them."
Discussing El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), Trump said: "They're great facilities. Very strong facilities. They don't play games."
CECOT is a notorious maximum security prison where men are reportedly kept in their cells for 23-and-a-half hours a day, not allowed to work, read or play cards, according to a CNN report last November.
William Brangham, the executive director of Cristosal, an international human rights group based in El Salvador, told PBS News his organization has "documented systematic physical beatings, torture, intentional denial of access to food, water, clothing, health care" in multiple prisons across El Salvador.
"The combination of both the physical abuse and the denial of basic needs has led to the death of at least 368 people, according to our investigations," he said.
What People Are Saying
Asked whether his plans to carry out deportations to El Salvador include "potentially U.S. citizens, fully naturalized Americans," Trump said: "I'm all for it. Because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security. And we have a huge prison population, we have a huge number of prisons, and then we have the private prisons, and some are operated as well I guess and some aren't."
In a 2021 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report on El Salvador, the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman said: "Many prisons had inadequate sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, medical care, and lighting. Inmates experienced gastrointestinal illnesses and skin problems due to poor water quality." It also said "overcrowding was a serious threat to prisoners' health and welfare."
What Happens Next
It is unclear whether the Trump administration will move forward with arrangements which would see U.S. citizens jailed in El Salvador.
About the writer
Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her current focus is on religion, health, food safety and ... Read more