Trump proposes that US 'repeat offenders' be incarcerated overseas
The president stated that the measure could cut costs for the federal government.
President Donald Trump proposed Monday that the United States could pay money to foreign countries for Americans who are "repeat offenders" to be imprisoned far away from the United States.
During a conference for House Republicans in Miami, Trump floated the idea as a cost-saving measure for the federal government, claiming that the costs of keeping prisoners in the U.S. are much higher than agreeing to a "small fee" with another country to send prisoners.
"If they’ve been arrested many, many times, they’re repeat offenders by many numbers, I want them out of our country," Trump said. "We’re going to get approval, hopefully, to get them the hell out of our country, along with others — let them be brought to a foreign land and maintained by others for a very small fee."
Trump says he wants to fly American criminals to other countries who will incarcerate them for "a small fee" pic.twitter.com/kmbpeUIL4X
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 27, 2025
Trump argued that, should the measure go forward, the federal government would avoid using U.S. prisons "for huge amounts of money" or "expensive" private prisons.
President Trump's comments come amid an unprecedented effort by the federal government to deport illegal immigrants who made it across the U.S. border, especially those with criminal records.
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However, the plan about sending repeat U.S. criminals to prisons abroad was presented as a separate and unrelated measure to the deportation effort.
Recently, Trump spoke with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who during his administration succeeded in subduing El Salvador's criminal gangs, such as Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, through a tough security program that included the construction of maximum security prisons for dangerous gang members.
Among the issues Trump and Bukele discussed was the problem of the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, financed by the Maduro regime. Since Washington and Caracas do not have good relations, the U.S. president and his Salvadoran counterpart discussed the possibility of sending members of Tren de Aragua to the dreaded prisons of El Salvador. Perhaps, the Central American country itself could, in the future, be the most logical place to send repeat US criminals should Trump's plan prosper.
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