Washington, D.C. –– U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is blasting President Trump’s proposal to send American citizens to prisons in El Salvador.
Today, Sen. Ossoff pressed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to reject an offer to imprison American citizens and legal residents in El Salvador’s dangerous prison system.
Last week, President Trump said he would send American citizens in prisons “in a heartbeat,”according to The New York Times.
“I write to urge that the Trump Administration immediately and unequivocally reject Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s reported offer to imprison U.S. citizens and legal residents in El Salvador,”Sen. Ossoff wrote to the Trump Administration.
According to an ABC News report earlier this month, Secretary Rubio expressed that the Trump Administration is “profoundly grateful” for President Bukele’s offer.
“Even entertaining this offer suggests a potential abandonment of core legal and ethical principles that protect the human and civil rights of Americans and others subject to U.S. jurisdiction,” Sen. Ossoff continued.
According to a 2023 U.S. State Department report, people incarcerated in El Salvador’s prison system are subjected to “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.”
Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect the rights of American citizens.
Last month, Sens. Ossoff and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the bipartisan Prison Staff Safety Enhancement Act, which would require the Department of Justice (DOJ) to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to mitigate inmate-on-staff sexual assault in Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities and help end sexual abuse in prisons.
In November, Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock urged Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to promptly address the deeply concerning findings in the DOJ’s report last month on Georgia’s state prison system, which found conditions in Georgia’s prisons “violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.”
In July, President Biden signed into law Sen. Ossoff’s bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act, historic prison reform legislation to overhaul independent oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prison’s 122 facilities nationwide by mandating routine inspections of all facilities by the DOJ Inspector General and establishing a new Ombudsman to investigate the health, safety, welfare, and rights of incarcerated people and staff.
Click here to read Sen. Ossoff’s inquiry with the Trump Administration.
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