It ’s the 2nd time in a week that the Trump administration has said it wants to forcibly disappear U.S. citizens overseas .
President Donald Trumpdoubled down Monday on his hope to illegally send U.S. citizens to a brutal prison in El Salvador, telling reporters he’s “all for it.”
“ You mentioned that you ’re open to deporting individuals that are n’t foreign stranger to El Salvador , ” a reporter noted during a bilateral Oval Office confluence between Trump andSalvadoran President Nayib Bukele .
“ Does that include , potentially , U.S. citizens ? ”
Trump didn’t shy away: “I’m all for it,” he said.
“ If they ’re criminals and if they hit multitude with baseball game cricket bat over the head that happen to be 90 age old and if , uh , if they spoil 87 - year - old women in Brooklyn , yeah , yeah , that includes them , ” he added .
“ They ’re as bad as anybody that comes in . We have big ones , too . ”
Trumppreviously suggestedthat mass who vandalize Teslas as a dissent against the company ’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk should also be sent to El Salvador .
The newsperson asked the question after Trump encourage Bukele to build several more detention facility and even offered to help pay for them , praising them as “ outstanding installation , very strong facilities . ”
Conditions at the megaprison are notoriously brutal . Juanita Goebertus , the conductor of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch , testifiedlast month under penalty of perjury that multitude there are deny communication with their relative and lawyers ; that masses are strain en masse shot by the hundreds ; and that some captive are held in lonely restriction cells that are completely glowering .
A livestream of the full meeting on Bukele ’s social metier accounts appear to capture the two leaders talk over the programme in more detail .
“The homegrowns are next,” Trump can be heard saying roughly seven minutes and 30 secondsinto the stream. “You’ve gotta build about five more places.”
“ Yeah , we have space , ” Bukele responded as the room come out in laughter .
The alarming back - and - forth is the second time the Trump governing has publicly mulled impoverish U.S. citizens of the rule of law in under a calendar week .
Last Tuesday , White House pressure secretaryKaroline Leavitt saidTrump is search legal pathways that would enable him to “ behave ” U.S. citizens to El Salvador .
She attempted to chasten the idea slenderly , describing it as an “ if ” and not necessarily a “ when . ”
“ The president has said , ifit ’s effectual , right , ifthere is a legal pathway to do that . He ’s not sure , [ and ] we are not indisputable if there is , ” Leavitt told reporters at a pressure briefing . “ It ’s an approximation that he has just floated and has discussed very publically in the elbow grease of transparence . ”This article originally appeared onHuffPost .
