‘I’d Be Very Happy’: Trump Floats Sending Jailed U.S. Citizens to Prisons In El Salvador
President Donald Trump said he’d be “happy” if foreign countries would be willing to take American criminals and lock them up in their prisons. Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters after signing executive orders in the White House.
“Secretary Rubio announced this week a deal that would allow American citizens potentially who are criminals to be put in a different country. Is that something you’re looking to do?” asked a reporter.
“I didn’t know that he announced that yet. But if he did, it’s fine yes. We have hard hardened criminals, horrible people. You see him pushing people into subways. The train is coming. Last week. A guy walking around just is somebody waiting for the train. Train’s coming 40 miles an hour and he gets pushed into the subway. And that happens all the time. These are sick people,” Trump said, adding:
If we could get them out of our country, we have other countries that would take him there. It’s no different than a prison system, except it would be a lot less expensive and it would be a great deterrent. Send them to other countries. We have we could go a step further. In other words, we’re talking about getting the criminals out of our country that come in through other countries illegally. Right. The illegal migrants, as I call them. Well, we have people that are just as bad as them in our country. If we could get them out, I’d be very happy.
“You would pay El Salvador to house them?” a reporter followed up as another asked, “Would you pay that?”
“Well, that’s a lot– That is very small fee compared to what we pay to private prisons, a very, very small fee. I don’t know. We’ll have to find that out legally. I’m just saying, if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Trump replied, adding:
I don’t know if we do or not. We’re looking at that right now. But we could make deals where we could get these animals out of our country. And, you know, if you take the shooters, the people that had old ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat, when they’re not looking that walk down the street, the people that you and you see it, the people that take out a gun and shoot you for no reason at all.
If we could get these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people. Because you know what? These are criminals. You call them hardened criminals. They’ve been in jail 40 times. There’s one 42 times. And every time the person gets out, it’s a he. Every time he gets out, he commits another crime within 24 hours. And it’s a heinous crime.
It’s a rough crime. We don’t want these people in our country either. We don’t want them in our country. If we have the option if we had the option to get them out and let them be based in some other country at a fraction of the cost. And frankly, they could keep them because these people are never going to be any good.
That person that has been arrested 42 times or 22 times or 17 times and is all in for manslaughter and everything else and only gets out because of a very weak judicial system that only goes after people like Trump. They don’t go after the criminals. They don’t go after people like this and they laugh at our law. If that took place, you would have a lot less crime automatically.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited El Salvador this week, where President Nayib Bukele offered to allow the U.S. to house migrants and criminals in its notoriously dangerous mega-prisons.
“There are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution,” Rubio told reporters at a Tuesday presser with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves. “But it’s a very generous offer. No one’s ever made an offer like that — and to outsource, at a fraction of the cost, at least some of the most dangerous and violent criminals that we have in the United States. But obviously, the administration will have to make a decision.”
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
