During a Monday meeting with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele at the White House, President Donald Trump could be heard demanding that his country build more prisons to incarcerate "home-grown" criminals.
"Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough," Trump can be heard saying.
Trump to Bukele: "Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough." pic.twitter.com/o20thGNK9e
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025
During the meeting, both leaders indicated that returning Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a father from Maryland who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, to the US was not their concern, despite the Supreme Court ordering his return. Instead, Trump expressed his desire to deport American criminals to El Salvador if permitted by law.
"I'd like to go a step further. I said to Pam (Bondi, US Attorney General), I don't know what the laws are, we always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways ... I'd like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country," Trump said.
Trump says he'd like to deport American citizens to a gulag in El Salvador: "I'd like to go a step further. I said to Pam, I don't know what the laws are, we always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways ... I'd like to include… pic.twitter.com/noStvA8JI8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025
Trump also told Bukele that he wanted him to facilitate the building of more institutions like El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in the country to house more prisoners from the US.
CECOT is the largest prison in the Americas, having opened in 2023 and housing 40,000 inmates. It includes multiple electric fences, 19 watchtowers and over 1,000 armed guards.
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