When asked if President Donald Trump’s plan to deport US citizens to foreign prisons is legal, border czar Tom Homan said it is a question for the Department of Justice, not him.
“I do not deport U.S. citizens,” Homan told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday when asked if sending American prisoners to foreign prisons would be legal. “I believe the Trump administration is discussing either extradition or prisoner transfer. That would be a question for the Department of Justice.”
Border czar Tom Homan stated that sending American citizens to overseas prisons is “out of” his “lane.”
Homan suggested Collins contact Attorney General Pam Bondi.
However, when Fox’s Jesse Watters asked Bondi the same question on Tuesday, she did not answer whether it is legal to send US citizens to foreign prisons.
“These people should be locked up for as long as the law allows. We are not going to let them go, and if it means building more prisons in our country, we will do so,” Bondi told Watters.
Under US law, Bondi’s Department of Justice and the United States Marshals Service are the government agencies in charge of transferring or extracting US prisoners.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is in charge of deporting non-citizens of the United States. Homan said Thursday that prison transfers for citizens are “out of my lane.”
“As a border czar, I will not remove a U.S. citizen,” he told Collins.
However, the Trump administration has publicly used the term “deport” to refer to the deportation of US citizens to El Salvador. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump is looking into ways to “deport” US citizens.
“The president has stated that if it is legal, there is a legal pathway to do so. “He is not sure, and we are not sure if there is,” Leavitt stated earlier this month. “It is an idea that he has simply floated and has discussed very publicly in the effort of transparency.”
In March, Trump himself suggested sending those accused of vandalizing Teslas to El Salvador.
“Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” he wrote for Truth Social.
The idea of sending US citizens to El Salvadorian prisons resurfaced during a meeting between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Trump on Monday, with the US president saying he was “all for it.” Trump went on to praise the notorious prisons and offer to pay for additional capacity to hold Americans.
“The homegrowns are next,” Trump declared.