Can US citizens be deported? El Salvador offers to take American criminals, Rubio says

In a deal offered to the U.S. by El Salvador, American criminals could find themselves imprisoned thousands of miles from home in the small Central American country notorious for its harsh penal conditions. But can the U.S. government deport its own citizens?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the offer — which he called “unprecedented” and “extraordinary” — after meeting with President Nayib Bukele on Feb. 3.

“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said, referring to migrants of any nationality detained in America, according to the Associated Press. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”

Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, writing, “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.”

Elon Musk, the head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, expressed support for the proposal, writing “Great idea!!” in a post on X.

However, immigration law experts threw cold water on this proposed deal. They cautioned that U.S. citizens are generally protected against deportation by the Constitution — and that sending Americans to El Salvadoran prisons could violate anti-torture laws.

Can the U.S. government deport citizens?

“Deporting U.S. citizens is not generally permitted as a matter of practice,” Erin Corcoran, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, who specializes in U.S. immigration law, told McClatchy News.

For American citizens to be deported, they must first be “denationalized/denaturalized” — which is the process of revoking citizenship — according to Susan Akram, an immigration law professor at Boston University School of Law.

And there is a very high bar to clear to denaturalize and deport natural-born citizens — meaning those born in the country.

“Natural-born U.S. citizens maintain their citizenship through the Fourteenth Amendment,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at the Cornell Law School, told McClatchy News. “Just as President Trump can’t eliminate birthright citizenship by himself, so too the U.S. government cannot deport U.S. citizens, even if they have committed crimes. Otherwise, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens could be deported.”

In fact, natural-born citizens can only be denaturalized and deported if they are convicted of treason or another crime against the state, Corcoran said.

“As far as I know, it’s very very rare,” Yale-Loehr said.

On the other hand, the bar is slightly lower for deporting naturalized citizens — meaning those who obtained a green card before becoming citizens.

For example, they can be denaturalized and expelled from the country if they lied or misrepresented themselves during the naturalization process, Yale-Loehr said.

He cited the cases of former Nazi prison guards who lied about their past occupation while becoming U.S. citizens. One of them, John Demjanjuk, was denaturalized following a 1981 trial and deported to Germany in 2009.

Still, Yale-Loehr said, deportations of naturalized citizens are rare.

“I don’t even know if they keep statistics on it,” he said.

On the flip side of the coin, those who are not U.S. citizens — including legal permanent residents — can be deported more easily, including if they are convicted of a crime.

Still, “there has to be some due process before this occurs,” Corcoran said.

There is, however, a way to circumvent the deportation process.

People incarcerated in U.S. prisons sometimes have an option to voluntarily leave the country and serve their sentences elsewhere, Akram said.

“The question is what the terms would be of such agreements, and how the individual would be returned — or allowed to return — to the U.S. upon completion of (their) sentence,” Akram said.

Potential violation of treaties

Further complicating matters is the controversial nature of El Salvador’s prison system.

In a 2023 report, Amnesty International, a non-governmental human rights organization, documented the “systematic use of torture and other abuse against prisoners in penal centers” in El Salvador, some of which results in prisoner deaths.

A travel advisory from the U.S. State Department also states that prisons in the country are “harsh and dangerous,” plagued by overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a lack of potable water.

“The U.S., under its ratification of the Convention against Torture and the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, is forbidden by these treaty commitments to send anyone to a country where they would be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” Akram said.

“The U.S. could be violating its domestic as well as international law if it agrees to do this …” Akram added.

This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Can US citizens be deported? El Salvador offers to take American criminals, Rubio says."