US President Donald Trump is being the leader of the biggest deportation wave in history. Normally, everyone has the right to due process of the law, however, Trump expressed his doubts about that, adding more fuel to the fire.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump weighed in with an out-of-the-box take on the right to due process, and people are rightfully shocked.
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Deportation is a large part of his agenda
Trump vowed during his 2024 campaign that he’d run the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history.
In the wake of his vows, Trump’s administration is pushing the courts to allow the deportation of immigrants accused of being members of a Venezuelan gang without pleading their case in front of a judge.
The Secretary of State had one take
When asked in an interview on Meet the Press this April whether everyone in the US is entitled to due process, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that they definitely do.
This is contrary to what Trump said in his interview.
But Trump had another say
When Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker asked Trump whether he was on the same page with Rubio, he responded with: “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”
This goes against the Fifth Amendment that states: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Due process presents as a hurdle for him
When Welker put emphasis on what the Fifth Amendment stated, Trump responded with: “I don’t know. It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials.”
“I was elected to get them the h**l out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” he added.
He threw that load on his lawyers
When asked about his obligation to uphold the Constitution, he again replied with: “I don’t know.”
“I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said,” he continued.
But it doesn’t seem like it
The Supreme Court has made three different decisions that dictate basic due process rights for immigrants.
The Trump administration has not been okay with this and have been accused of defying the lower court judges and even the Supreme Court.
People were far from okay with Trump’s response
One person wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The constitution is not a suggestion.”
Another person mockingly added: “Trump on Jan. 20: ‘I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ Trump today: ‘I don’t know.'”
