Donald Trump has seemingly violated his presidential oath and attacked the Constitution in a fiery statement about deporting immigrants.
The president remains steadfast in his aggressive immigration stance, continuing his efforts to remove non-U.S. citizens from the country.
To further this goal, he has been leaning on an old wartime law—the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—which was last used to justify the internment camps during World War II.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted Trump approval to use the legislation to advance his vision of mass deportations. Crucially, this creates a loophole that allows the extradition of migrants accused of crimes — such as involvement with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua or the MS-13 gang — without any court intervention or hearings.
While the justices approved the plan, they cautioned deportees must be given the opportunity to challenge their removal.
President Trump has apparently violated the Constitution (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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 doing 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.”
His statement appears to contradict the constitutional right to due process, as the National Constitution Center notes that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees “procedural protections, such as notice and a hearing before termination.”
It also prevents U.S. states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Legal experts on Reddit have pointed out that Trump’s claim “openly dismisses a foundational constitutional protection,” with some adding that he has “directly betrayed his oath of office, as outlined clearly in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, to ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.'”
Hundreds have already been deported out of the US and into the El Salvador mega jail without any legal barriers (El Salvador Press Presidency Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“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, including approximately 261 individuals accused of gang involvement. These individuals were sent to the notorious El Salvador mega-jail, CECOT, despite a lower court’s attempt to block their removal.
