Fox News suggests getting rid of due process for immigrants because it’s too hard – UK Times

Several Fox News hosts on Monday morning suggested that immigrants being deported by the Trump administration shouldn’t be afforded due process because it is too cumbersome, saying “it’s not practical” due to the number of migrants in the country.

Last week, President Donald Trump deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to an El Salvador prison by invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an obscure 18th-century law that gives wartime authority to deport noncitizens with little due process. The president has argued that the gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is at war with the United States.

A federal judge blocked the president’s deportation flights, questioned whether the administration defied his orders, and has since rejected the administration’s request to toss the case, ruling that the migrants deserved to have a court hearing to determine if they were actually members of the gang and deserved to be removed. Meanwhile, Trump and other White House officials have implied that he doesn’t need to show proof that people rounded up for deportation are illegally in the country and/or violent criminals — even as ICE has admitted that many of the migrants have no criminal record.

“Do you think you have the authority, the power to round up people, deport them, and then you’re under no obligation to a court to show the evidence against them?” a reporter asked Trump on Friday, prompting the president to respond: “Well, that’s what the law says, and that’s what our country needs.”

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Trump’s so-called “border czar” Tom Homan went even further on Sunday. While insisting that the administration wouldn’t defy any court orders, he also declared that he doesn’t “care what the judges think as far as this case” before arguing that migrants suspected of criminal behavior don’t deserve due process.

“Due process? What was Laken Riley’s due process?” Homan exclaimed on ABC’s This Week, referring to the nursing student murdered by a Venezuelan migrant. “What were all these young women that were killed and raped by members of TdA? What was their due process? How about the young lady that was burned alive on the subway? Where was her due process?!”

Referencing Homan’s comments on Monday’s broadcast of Fox & Friends, co-host Lawrence Jones defended the administration’s position that the Alien Enemies Act gives Trump the authority to immediately remove suspected Venezuelan gang members.

“The president is saying under the act that you don’t have to show, you don’t have to do this due process. So you have a constitutional right that is actually, they are afforded to illegals in this country. We should revisit that,” Jones said. “But then you have a competing act that is saying, hey, if someone is a part of a foreign terrorist organization, that you don’t have to give them due process, and they can be deported.”

Jones went on to state that despite concerns that many of those swept up by Homeland Security have no affiliation with TdA and were merely apprehended because they have tattoos, DHS agents shouldn’t be forced to reveal information backing their claims. “If we start bringing out our sources and methods, we’re going to burn our sources that are still within the organization,” Jones insisted, quoting the administration.

“I think that’s a great point with your law enforcement background especially. But I also think it’s not practical to think that we can do due process on 8 million people,” Kilmeade reacted, prompting Jones and co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy to agree.

“There’s 22 million people here at minimum, illegal already, just in the last three administrations. And there are some people that got through with Trump’s administration,” he added. “If we are going to give ever these guys a day in court and a lawyer, we can’t do it, they don’t deserve it. Our system doesn’t need to be double-burdened.”

Continuing to rant about the media being “outraged” over the deportation flights, Kilmeade then dismissed the claims made by a Venezuelan soccer player’s attorney, who says his client — who has never been arrested or charged with a crime — was erroneously tied to TdA due to a tattoo.

“Now you are concerned this was a tattoo arrest — it wasn’t a tattoo arrest. And as much as it pains me to say it, just because you are a professional soccer player, it doesn’t mean that you are a great person and weren’t up to no good when you escaped and got across our border,” he grumbled. “If you were that good, you could have been transferred to another team!”