Why one deportation case has legal scholars afraid for even U.S. citizens
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It had also been arguing that courts cannot compel the U.S. government to return him to this country.
The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously determined the government must "facilitate" his release from the El Salvador prison where he is being held, but the Department of Justice has so far only confirmed his presence at that prison.
If he is not returned to this country to face due process, people following this case point out a troubling implication: The government could potentially send anyone to a foreign prison – regardless of citizenship – with no legal recourse.
Harvard University emeritus professor of constitutional law Laurence Tribe explains his argument.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at [email protected].
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Naïbe Buckela, the president of El Salvador, has called himself the world's coolest dictator. |
| 0:05.7 | His government has put over 80,000 people in prison in a crackdown on gangs and has repeatedly touted the cruelty with which it treats prisoners. |
| 0:14.3 | And on Monday, he will be visiting the White House, in part because he has offered the services of a mega-prison to the United States. |
| 0:21.4 | He has agreed to accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a |
| 0:28.3 | criminal from any nationality, be the MS-13 or Trin Daragua, and housed them in his jails. |
| 0:34.2 | That's Secretary of State Marco Rubioio speaking in El Salvador in early February. |
| 0:39.7 | President Trump's mass deportation initiative recently saw around 260 men apprehended across the U.S. |
| 0:46.1 | and flown to that maximum security prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration says the men |
| 0:52.3 | were criminals and gang members. but CBS's 60 Minutes reported |
| 0:56.6 | At least 22% of the men on the list have criminal records here in the United States or abroad. |
| 1:03.7 | The vast majority are for nonviolent offenses like theft, shoplifting, and trespassing. |
| 1:09.9 | About a dozen are accused of murder, rape, assault, and |
| 1:13.1 | kidnapping. For 3% of those deported, it is unclear whether a criminal record exists. But we could |
| 1:20.3 | not find criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans, 179 men, now sitting in prison. |
| 1:28.3 | The Department of Homeland Security countered that reporting by saying these individuals |
| 1:32.4 | are, quote, terrorists, though it is not providing documentation. The Trump administration |
| 1:37.6 | has admitted that one of the men was mistakenly deported in an administrative error. |
| 1:43.4 | A Salvadoran National living in Maryland named Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. |
| 1:48.2 | The White House maintains that he is a member of the gang MS-13. |
| 1:51.7 | His lawyers say he's been living in Maryland peacefully for 14 years and that he's never |
| 1:55.8 | been charged with a crime in any country. |
| 1:58.6 | In 2019, a judge granted Abrago-Garcia protected legal status that was |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.