Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, El Salvador, Crime, Court
Liv Bridge
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, El Salvador, Crime, Court
Donald Trump has apparently violated his presidential oath and attacked the constitution in an explosive statement about deporting immigrants.
The president is not letting up on his aggressive immigration policy as he continues to try to deport non-US citizens out of the country.
To his end, he has been relying on an old wartime law - The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 - which was last used to justify 'internment camps' in World War Two.
Earlier this month, Trump was given the green light by the Supreme Court to utilize the legislation to fuel his vision of mass deportations, which crucially presents a loophole to extradite migrants that have been accused of crime - like being involved in the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua or the MS-13 gang - without any court interventions or hearings.
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While the justices approved the plan, they cautioned deportees must be given the opportunity to challenge their removal.
Yet the POTUS is apparently turning a blind eye to this warning, even going so far as to suggest violating the Constitution.
Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: "If we don’t get these criminals out of our Country, we are not going to have a Country any longer.
"We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years. We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the Country.
"Such a thing is not possible to do."
His statement is apparently in conflict with the constitutional right to due process as, according to the National Constitution Center, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees 'procedural protections, such as notice and a hearing before termination'.
It also prohibits the US states from depriving 'any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law'.
Legal experts on Reddit have pointed out Trump's claim 'openly dismisses a foundational constitutional protection,' adding that he has 'directly betrayed his oath of office, outlined clearly in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution to 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.''
"Allowing a President to openly reject constitutional rights sets a dangerous precedent that weakens the foundation of American constitutional governance," the r/law thread adds as they argue Trump should be impeached and removed from office for the apparent breach.
However, such warnings are probably falling on deaf ears, as Trump continued in his post to rant about the US legal system.
He wrote: "I’m doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our Country, but the Courts don’t seem to want me to do that. My team is fantastic, doing an incredible job, however, they are being stymied at every turn by even the U.S. Supreme Court, which I have such great respect for, but which seemingly doesn’t want me to send violent criminals and terrorists back to Venezuela, or any other Country, for that matter — People that came here illegally!"
He continued: "The Courts are intimidated by the Radical Left who are, 'playing the Ref.' Great Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito correctly wants to dissolve the pause on deportations. He is right on this!
"What a ridiculous situation we are in. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Hundreds have already been deported without legal challenges under the law already, including some 261 people accused of gang involvement who have been sent to the infamous El Salvador mega-jail CECOT, despite a lower court attempting to block their removal.