{"id":6004,"date":"2025-02-11T10:49:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ossoff-calls-on-trump-admin-to-publicly-refuse-el-salvadors-offer-to-jail-americans\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:49:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:49:20","slug":"ossoff-calls-on-trump-admin-to-publicly-refuse-el-salvadors-offer-to-jail-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ossoff-calls-on-trump-admin-to-publicly-refuse-el-salvadors-offer-to-jail-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Ossoff calls on Trump admin to \u2018publicly refuse\u2019 El Salvador\u2019s offer to jail Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff is urging the Trump administration to unequivocally reject El Salvador\u2019s offer to hold American citizens in its prison system, condemning President Donald Trump\u2019s initial response to the proposal.<\/p>\n

The Democrat\u2019s letter, sent Monday and first obtained by POLITICO<\/a>, comes days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s trip to El Salvador, one stop on his tour of Central American countries intended to advance the president\u2019s immigration agenda. After the meeting, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed<\/a> allowing the U.S. to place convicted criminals, including American citizens, in the country\u2019s Terrorism Confinement Center for a fee. The mega-prison was built to house over 40,000 people and has been at the center of concerns from human rights groups over violence and overcrowding.<\/p>\n

The proposal immediately spurred concerns from lawyers and advocates but was praised by top Trump administration officials, including Elon Musk and Rubio, who called it a \u201cvery generous offer\u201d \u2014 while acknowledging the legal questions at play. And Trump said he would jail Americans in El Salvador \u201cin a heartbeat\u201d if he had the legal right to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal law does not allow the deportation of U.S. citizens, and El Salvador\u2019s prisons are internationally notorious for life-threatening and abusive conditions,\u201d Ossoff wrote in a letter to Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi. \u201cI urge you to promptly and publicly refuse President Bukele\u2019s reported offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any moves by the Trump administration to deport U.S. nationals to another country would face significant legal challenges, but last week\u2019s discussions underscore the major role Trump officials see El Salvador playing in their efforts to secure regional collaboration on the president\u2019s aggressive immigration policies. And Trump\u2019s engagement with the idea also underscored his willingness to embrace extreme and unprecedented ideas to show toughness on crime and illegal immigration \u2014 hallmark issues of his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

Buekele\u2019s harsh prisons have been a focal point of his aggressive campaign against crime. Since March 2022, more than 84,000 have been arrested \u2014 many with little to no due process \u2014 as Burkele has used the military and a state-of-emergency to crack down on criminals. The State Department\u2019s travel advisory for the country warns that those imprisoned could face \u201charsh\u201d conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a moral and legal travesty for the U.S. government to subject anyone to such conditions,\u201d Ossoff said.<\/p>\n

Ossoff\u2019s response also offers clues about how and when Democrats will choose to fight Trump. Lawmakers, especially when it comes to immigration, have been strategic in responding to the president\u2019s moves. The party\u2019s loudest criticism so far has been directed at Trump\u2019s overhaul of the federal government and his efforts to push legal boundaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff is urging the Trump administration to unequivocally reject El Salvador\u2019s offer to hold American citizens in its prison system, condemning President Donald Trump\u2019s initial response to the proposal. The Democrat\u2019s letter, sent Monday and first obtained by Blue Light News, comes days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s trip to El Salvador, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}