Trump says 'can't have a trial' for all migrants he wants to deport
"Such a thing is not possible to do," he posted on social media.
Amid a tense legal battle over deportations, President Donald Trump is now arguing undocumented migrants should not be given a trial where they could challenge being removed from the country.
"We're getting them out, and I hope we get cooperation from the courts because you know, we have thousands of people that are ready to go out, and you can't have a trial for all of these people," Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
"It wasn't meant, the system wasn't meant -- and we don't think there is anything that says -- Look, we are getting some very bad people, killers, murderers, drug dealers, really bad people, the mentally ill, the mentally insane, they emptied out insane asylums into our country, we're getting them out," Trump continued. "And a judge can't say, 'No, you have to have a trial.'"
"No, we are going to have a very dangerous country if we are not allowed to do what we are entitled to do," Trump added.
Trump made a similar argument in a post to his conservative social media platform, contending they can't give everyone they want to deport a trial because it would "take, without exaggeration, 200 years."
"Such a thing is not possible to do," he wrote.
Immigration matters are routinely dealt with in a limited hearing or other proceeding before an immigration judge -- not a full-blown trial as Trump suggests.
His comments came after the Supreme Court, in a brief order issued early Saturday morning, temporarily blocked the administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants alleged to be gang members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
"The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court," the justices said. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
The Trump administration pushed back against the Supreme Court, calling its decision "unprecedented" and wrong. Solicitor General John Sauer said the justices should reverse course and let lower courts weigh in on the issue first.
The American Civil Liberties Union had appealed to the nation's high court to stop the migrants being held in a Texas detention center from being removed, contending they were at risk of being deported "without notice or an opportunity to be heard" -- a breach, they said, of the Supreme Court's previous order that detainees are entitled to "reasonable time" to seek relief.
"These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court," said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt in a statement after the Supreme Court's order. "We are relieved that the Supreme Court has not permitted the administration to whisk them away the way others were just last month."
Also front and center of Trump's deportation effort is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant living in Maryland who was erroneously deported to El Salvador's infamous CECOT mega-prison.
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan defended Abrego Garcia's removal, telling ABC's "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl they "did the right thing" and "removed a public safety threat." The administration's alleged Abrego Garcia is member of the MS-13 gang, which his attorneys and family deny.
Democrats have criticized Trump's actions in the case as violating due process rights. Sen. Chris Van Hollen was the first Democratic lawmaker to visit El Salvador, where he met with Garcia, last week. Several House Democrats were in El Salvador on Monday to advocate for his release.
“奥丑颈濒别 Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,” said Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia. “That is why we’re here -- to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America."
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