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Trump has discussed options for deporting citizens both publicly and in private, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

By Chris Walker, Truthout

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump’s quip about wanting to “deport” incarcerated U.S. citizens to El Salvador’s notoriously cruel prison system, that the White House has actually been discussing such a policy.

Trump was asked by a reporter on Monday whether he endorsed the idea of sending U.S. citizens to El Salvador, as his administration has already sent hundreds of noncitizens there, mostly immigrants from Venezuela who were living in the U.S. The White House has tried to justify its actions by claiming that those individuals were violent gang members — but an investigation by CBS News found that three-quarters of the people deported had no criminal records at all.

Trump responded positively to the idea of sending currently incarcerated U.S. citizens to El Salvador’s prisons as well.

Kristi Noem stands in front of a prison population in El Salvador

“I love that,” Trump said, adding that he’d be “honored to give them” to that country.

The president acknowledged that he wasn’t sure whether what he was advocating for was legal.

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