Trump floats sending Americans to foreign prisons. Civil rights groups say that would be illegal. [View all]
No one should assume that this only pertains to people who vandalize Teslas. It is not the first time he has floated the idea of sending American prisoners to foreign prisons.
Trump suggested on Truth Social that people charged with attacking Tesla could serve time in lovely prisons in El Salvador.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated sending American prisoners to serve prison sentences outside the country this time threatening the people charged with vandalizing Teslas.
Civil rights groups say the move is illegal and life-threatening.
Trumps suggestion on Truth Social on Friday to send the Tesla attackers to El Salvador marks an escalation of his already controversial use of foreign prisons, this time potentially targeting American citizens.
If put into action, the administration is likely to face yet another legal battle as it pushes the bounds of executive power in what civil and prisoners rights organizations are calling a constitutional crisis.
Theres no precedent to send U.S. citizens elsewhere outside the country, to serve sentences in other prisons, Insha Rahman, the vice president of advocacy at the decades-old criminal justice reform organization Vera Institute of Justice, told POLITICO. It is so beyond the pale of anything contemplated by the Constitution or due process or the criminal courts.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/21/trump-foreign-prison-threats-civil-rights-groups-027162