By G. A. McNeeley 

Photo: Prisoners at the El Salvador prison criticized for human rights violations and inhumane conditions, where Trump gas sent deported immigrants and now wants to send U.S. citizens. CC BY-SA   via Bing

April 23 2025 (Washington D.C.) — President Donald Trump says his administration is actively exploring a proposal to detain U.S. citizens and send them to prisons in El Salvador, according to NPR.  The proposal has raised alarm bells among legal scholars and civil libertarians who contend such action would be unconstitutional. Moreover, the admnistration's defiance of court orders over immigrants deported to El Salvador without due process heighten concerns over the potential for U.S. citizens to be disappeared into El Salvador's infamous prison system.

"It is pretty obviously illegal and unconstitutional," Ilya Somin, a professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, said of the proposal.

Trump discussed this with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who agreed to deposit people deported from the U.S. into the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, which has gained notoriety for human rights violations. 

"Yeah, we've got space," Bukele reportedly told Trump, during their White House meeting, suggesting his country is prepared to incarcerate U.S. citizens.