Are U.S. Citizens Next To Be Deported? Trumpian Legislators Are Incapable of Answering Simple Yes/No Questions

Apr 20, 2025 03:07 PM EDT, Sun

Republican Repeatedly Dodges Question on Deporting US Citizen Criminals

Story by Mandy Taheri. April 20, 2025.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (T-MN) sidestepped repeated questions from CNN host Dana Bash on Sunday about whether or not he supports President Donald Trump’s floated proposal to expand deportations to El Salvador to include U.S. citizens with violent criminal records.

Newsweek has reached out to Emmer’s press team for comment via email on Sunday.

Why It Matters

During a recent White House meeting between Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Trump mentioned the possibility of sending U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes to the Central American country..

Trump and Bukele brokered a $6 million deal for El Salvador to detain about 300 migrants, including alleged gang members, at the country’s maximum-security prison, CECOT, for one year.

Earlier this year, Trump sent two planes full of migrants that he claimed were gang members to the mega prison despite a court’s order to halt deportations. In addition, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who came to the U.S. illegally and resided in Maryland with his wife and children, was aboard the flight in what the White House later called an “administrative error.” He remains in El Salvador despite a court order urging the federal government to “facilitate” his return.

Trump campaigned on a hardline immigration stance, pledging to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. In the initial months of his presidency, his administration has deported around 100,000 illegal immigrants, many due to his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which grants the president authority to deport non-citizens without appearing before a judge, among other wartime authorities.

Many legal experts and Democrats have expressed outrage and concern about the presidential authority, lack of due process, and the administration’s sidestepping of various court orders. Emmer, a top House Trumpian who is also an attorney, has been supportive of Trump’s sweeping efforts, but on Sunday avoided answering Bash’s question regarding the fate of some U.S. citizens with violent criminal records.

What To Know

In a Sunday morning interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Bash pressed Emmer on Trump’s remarks about deporting U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to El Salvador, asking, “Do you think the federal government has any legal authority to do that with American citizens?”

“I think right now what he is doing is absolutely legal, which is removing those that do not have legal status in this country that have proven to be the worst of worst—” the congressman responded, with Bash jumping in, “But what about U.S. citizens?”

Emmer continued to talk about the state of illegal immigration and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) recently went to visit Abrego Garcia in El Salvador with regards for his sympathy for “illegal immigrants.”

“Congressman, my question is about U.S. citizens,” Bash reiterated, adding, “What about the idea that the White House says it is looking into whether or not U.S. citizens who are convicted of violent crimes can be imprisoned in El Salvador?”

The Minnesota Trumpian responded: “Well, again, what they’re focused on…is what’s actually happening, which is deporting terrorist, cartel members, rapists, murders the worst of the worst is exactly what Donald Trump promised during the campaign.”

In a final offer, Bash said, “I just want to give you one more chance to say whether or not you’re okay with U.S. citizens, the idea of it, I know it’s not happening [right now], but he has actively said more than once that they are looking into it, would you be okay with it?”

He responded by not answering the question but instead turning it on party lines, saying “We got a president who wants to protect U.S. citizens from violence, from crime, having their children solicited, murdered, et cetera versus Democrats who seem to want to protect illegal aliens in this country for whatever reason.”

The interview ended without Emmer stating if he would support Trump’s proposal regarding U.S citizens. Earlier this week following the meeting between Trump and Bukele, he backed Trump’s broader immigration stance, posting on X, formerly Twitter: “President Trump says he wants to deport as many illegal criminals as possible to El Salvador. Joe Biden and Border Czar Harris allowed murderers, rapists, and vicious gang members to flood into our country unvetted. Now, President @realDonaldTrump is going to clean up the mess the Biden Administration made!”

During the White House meeting, Trump specifically referenced targeting U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes: “We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters. I’d like to include them.”

He also reportedly told the Salvadorian president, “The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places,” presumably in reference to prison space, with Bukele responding “yeah, we’ve got space,” according to NPR.

The legal viability of Trump’s potential plan is extremely unclear, with David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the think tank Cato Institute, recently telling NPR: “It’s obviously unconstitutional, obviously illegal. There’s no authority in any U.S. law to deport U.S. citizens and certainly not to imprison them in a foreign country.”

What People Are Saying

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously said that Trump was interested in deporting “heinous, violent criminals” who are U.S. citizens to El Salvador “if there’s a legal pathway to do that.”

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, posted to X on Monday: “We are at a dangerous, dangerous moment in US history, where the President of the United States is threatening to send US citizens to be imprisoned by a foreign ally, and the foreign ally is saying it won’t respect an [sic] US court orders to release people that it’s holding.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) wrote in a Friday X post about Abrego Garcia’s case: “We are standing up for EVERYONE’s right to due process under the Constitution.”

The Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump Republican1 group, wrote in an X statement on April 14: “Donald Trump is deporting legal US residents to a foreign gulag, and he has stated publicly that he is moving on to citizens next. This is a Constitutional crisis. Will a single Trumpian stand up for our Constitution?”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele wrote in a February X post: “We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system. We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.”

What Happens Next?

It is unclear under what legal authority the Trump administration could execute this idea.

Deportations are expected to continue under the administration despite several legal challenges and orders halting specific cases.

  1. @RalphHightower: I’ll allow Republican in this use since they are anti-Trump ↩

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