President Donald Trump had a chat with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” and decided that kicking out immigrants is more important than giving them a fair trial. He’s all about that “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history that he promised during his 2024 campaign. His administration is pushing the courts to let them boot out immigrants they think are part of a Venezuelan gang without even letting them speak to a judge first.
During a recent chat with “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio was like, “Yeah, everyone in the U.S. should get due process.” But Trump was like, “I’m not really sure, I’m not a lawyer, you know?” This all went down during an interview at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that aired on Sunday.
The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment says that nobody can be stripped of their rights without a fair trial. It doesn’t specifically say that only U.S. citizens get this protection, and the Supreme Court has acknowledged that noncitizens have rights too. Trump, however, thinks that following this process will just slow him down too much.
He pointed out that having trials for all these people would take forever and isn’t really practical. He’s all about getting rid of the “homegrown criminals” and sticking to the laws. But, he also mentioned that he wouldn’t mind shipping some of these criminals off to El Salvador, which didn’t sit well with legal experts.
When the interviewer tried to remind him of what the Fifth Amendment actually says, Trump was like, “Eh, maybe, but we have too many criminals to deal with.” He feels like the courts are the ones holding him back from doing what he wants to do.
But, even with all the numbers and cases, the interviewer asked if he should still follow the Constitution. Trump’s response? “I don’t know, my lawyers will figure it out.” The Supreme Court has already made it clear that immigrants have basic rights, including the right to appear before an immigration judge.
The Trump administration has been trying to use an old law to quickly deport members of a Venezuelan gang without going through the usual legal processes. This move has faced a lot of opposition, leading to Supreme Court decisions blocking the administration from sending these people away without a fair trial.
There have been cases where people were deported based on false accusations, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly accused of being part of a gang. The Supreme Court ordered the government to bring him back to the U.S. so he could defend himself. But the administration hasn’t made much effort to make that happen.
In the midst of all this chaos, Trump insists that he’s not breaking any laws and is just following his lawyers’ advice. He even mentioned that he might take the whole thing to court if needed.
Despite all the setbacks, the Trump administration still has some options to speed up the deportation process. They could ask Congress to change immigration laws or hire more immigration judges to clear up the backlog of cases. However, they’ve actually fired some judges instead.
In the end, Trump is determined to stick to his plans, even if it means facing legal challenges along the way. Who knows what will happen next in this ongoing saga? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like things are about to get even more interesting.
