Deadline: Legal Blog-White House floats deporting U.S. citizens. Justice Sotomayor just warned about that.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned potentially deporting American citizens who are violent repeat offenders “if it’s legal.”

White House floats deporting U.S. citizens. Justice Sotomayor just warned about that.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned potentially deporting American citizens who are violent repeat offenders “if it’s legal.”
www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...

— hateGOP (@hategop.bsky.social) 2025-04-08T21:21:49.219Z

White House floats deporting U.S. citizens. Justice Sotomayor just warned about that.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned potentially deporting American citizens who are violent repeat offenders “if it’s legal.”

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-leavitt-deporting-us-citizens-el-salvador-sotomayor-rcna200299

Responding to a question at Tuesday’s daily briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned President Donald Trump’s “idea” to potentially deport “violent” and “heinous” U.S. citizens, adding a seemingly important caveat: “If it’s legal.”

It’s not.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Indeed, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned just a day earlier of the possibility.

Dissenting from the Supreme Court’s decision to grant emergency relief to the government in a case about deportations, Sotomayor wrote that the implications of the Trump administration’s legal stance is that “not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal.”

The possibility also lurks in another appeal pending before the justices, in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported to El Salvador. Despite conceding an “administrative error” in sending him to that country, the government has resisted remedying the error. Supporting his return, constitutional scholars wrote to the high court that, if the government’s position were correct, then “the Executive Branch would possess a shuddering degree of power — power that the President could wield in extreme and extraordinary ways, including against American citizens that the President simply disfavors.”

Leavitt’s comments thus reinforce the importance of the court’s forthcoming decision in Abrego Garcia’s case, whose consequences could inform just how far this administration will go.

[wnylib]

1. Deportation is the wrong word. Trump is using foreign prisons as concentration camps in order to

avoid the protests and demonstrations that would happen if he had the camps here in the US.

[ananda]

2. *This*

Rec

[Arazi]

3. It WILL happen. I'm just waiting on their first case

So they can test the laws (which SCOTUS) will contort themselves to allow )

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. MaddowBlog-Trump continues to float the idea of foreign imprisonment of American criminals

The president admitted that he’s unfamiliar with relevant U.S. laws, but he nevertheless “loves” the idea of locking up some American criminals abroad.

Trump continues to float the idea of foreign imprisonment of American criminals

flip.it/_a85CG

— (@gypsydaveh.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T23:50:17.793Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-continues-float-idea-foreign-imprisonment-american-criminals-rcna200092

When it comes to Donald Trump’s vision of mass deportations, there were some who assumed the president would focus on immigrants who committed violent crimes. Those assumptions were quickly discredited as the administration rounded up, among others, plenty of people who’ve never been convicted — or even accused of — committing a crime.

Similarly, many assumed the Republican’s deportation plan would focus on noncitizens. Those assumptions are in doubt, too. The Hill reported:

President Trump said Sunday he would “love” to send American inmates to El Salvador’s mega-prison but first needs to check if it’s legal. Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Trump was asked whether he plans to discuss with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele his offer to take in and house American prisoners.

“Well, I love that,” Trump said. “If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and that hit people over the back of the head and that purposely run people over in cars — if he would take them, I would be honored to give them.”

He went on to say, “I don’t know what the law says on that, but I can’t imagine the law would say anything different.”.....

In January, roughly a week into his second term, the Republican made related comments, suggesting that United States might be willing to pay a “small fee” to foreign countries to imprison American criminals.

He repeated the sentiment, using nearly identical phrasing, in early February.

In the latest iteration, Trump said he “can’t imagine” this would be illegal. Presumably, administration attorneys will eventually explain otherwise that the limits of his imagination, coupled with his ignorance about legal limits, are a problem.

The next question, of course, would be whether the president would let legal limits stop him from doing what he apparently wants to do.

[intheflow]

5. Everyone is missing the most salient part of who they want to target:

Protesters.

“…violent, repeat offenders in America’s streets.”

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. trump wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act during the George Floyd protests

There is no one left to talk trump out of taking this action if there are protests similar to the George Floyd protests. Even the current peaceful protests may annoy trump enough to attempt to use the Insurrection Act

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Karoline Leavitt primed unthinkable action after Sonia Sotomayor's warning: analyst

Karoline Leavitt is now advocating deporting US citizens to foreign prisons without due process if they offend trump.

Karoline Leavitt primed unthinkable action after Sonia Sotomayor's warning: analyst

www.rawstory.com/trump-deport...

— Peter (@pajjr.bsky.social) 2025-04-10T01:10:50.806Z

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-deportations-2671730047/

MSNBC’S Jordan Rubin delivered a message to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt after she floated the startling suggestion that the U.S. government could potentially deport American citizens who are “violent” repeat offenders “if it’s legal.”

“It’s not,” the legal analyst Rubin clapped back. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”

Rubin on Wednesday flagged Leavitt’s comments she made at a daily news briefing this week for readers of his MSNBC legal blog – which the former prosecutor said were forewarned by Justice Sonia Sotomayor just a day earlier.

“Dissenting from the Supreme Court’s decision to grant emergency relief to the government in a case about deportations, Sotomayor wrote that the implications of the Trump administration’s legal stance is that ‘not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal,”' according to Rubin.

The possibility floated by Leavitt could meet reality in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who the Trump administration mistakenly sent to an El Salvadoran mega-prison last month, Rubin added Wednesday. That legal battle is currently pending before the high court, the MSNBC analyst said.

“Leavitt’s comments thus reinforce the importance of the court’s forthcoming decision in Abrego Garcia’s case, whose consequences could inform just how far this administration will go,” Rubin concluded.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. WTF? Don't they know whatever dipshit does is legal?

Sheesh. It's not like the crooks to be deported aren't Democrats or nothing.

GOP knows how to get things done when they control through theft and treason the Courts, both Houses of Congress and the insane Executive.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. The trump administration really wants to deport US Citizens