Can Trump legally deport US citizens to El Salvador prisons?

After deporting 238 alleged Venezuelan gang members and 23 members of a Salvadoran gang to a maximum-security El Salvador prison last month, US President Donald Trump is now contemplating deporting criminals who are United States citizens there as well, he told reporters on Monday.

But Trump’s latest plan will probably face multiple legal challenges. Forcibly sending American passport holders outside the country is likely illegal, experts say, and Trump himself signed a bill during his first term that could make such deportations even more difficult.Who has Trump already deported to El Salvador?
Last month, Trump deported 238 members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, as well as 23 members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 to El Salvador.

These men are now being held in the Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) or CECOT, a 40,000-capacity, maximum-security prison in El Salvador.To facilitate this, the Trump administration struck a deal under which the US government will pay El Salvador about $6m to detain alleged Tren de Aragua members for a year.

Trump also invoked a wartime “zombie” law from 1798, the Alien Enemies Act, to enable the deportations. This law permits US presidents to detain or deport noncitizens during wartime. Prior to Trump’s use of it, the Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.Trump’s use of the law is controversial, as critics argue that the US is not currently under any threat of “invasion” as a result of being at war. An explainer article from the Brennan Center for Justice argued in 2024 that invoking the act “in peacetime to bypass conventional immigration law would be a staggering abuse” and such an attempt should be struck down by the courts.

Another point of controversy is that, as well as the alleged gang members, Trump also deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran citizen who has lived in Maryland for 14 years and is married to a US citizen.

In 2019, Abrego Garcia was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Maryland after an informant told the police that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 terrorist. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have denied this allegation, citing a lack of any proof that Abrego Garcia is affiliated with the MS-13.Later in 2019, an immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia an immigration protection called “withholding of removal”, which shielded him from being returned to El Salvador and allowed him to remain in the US.

The government has described his deportation as an “administrative error”, but still claims that Abrego Garcia has ties to MS-13. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said he would not return Abrego Garcia, who is now being held in CECOT, to the US.

“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele told reporters on Monday.

In an unsigned order on Thursday, however, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a 9-0 decision that Trump should facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the US. The court currently comprises a conservative majority of 6-3.