President Donald Trump has again floated the idea of deporting U.S. citizens who commit crimes.
On Tuesday (July 1), Trump was touring a migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades when he again claimed that there are many U.S. citizens who immigrated to this country and are committing serious crimes. The president suggested that his “next job” might be to deport these people.
“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,” he said, per ABC News. “So maybe that will be the next job.”
Trump’s comments come after Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate sent out a memo encouraging U.S. attorneys to pursue the denaturalization process to “advance the Administration’s policy objectives.” Shumate suggested that attorneys open cases against individuals who have engaged in torture, war crimes, human trafficking, and human rights violations.
Many legal experts have said that Trump’s proposal to deport U.S. citizens who commit crimes is unconstitutional, citing the Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
The president initially floated the idea earlier this year, saying he would like to send “horrible criminals” to El Salvador.
“We have some horrible criminals, American grown, born,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, noting that he’s “all for” sending them to prisons in El Salvador. “I don’t know what the law says on that.”
On Tuesday, Trump again acknowledged that he didn’t know if it was legal to deport U.S. citizens convicted of crimes.
“We’ll have to find that out legally. I’m just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Trump said. “I don’t know if we do or not, we’re looking at that right now.”
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