25 million Americans at risk? Trump's most shocking deportation call targets US citizens as he sets bizarre conditions

Time of India

2 days ago

US President Donald Trump Tuesday paid a visit to the new Florida detention centre dubbed "
Alligator Alcatraz
", where around 3,000 migrants are expected to be held as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration. While touring the facility in the Florida Everglades, Trump said it will soon hold the most "menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet".
He again floated the idea of deporting US citizens who commit crimes, which legal experts say is "unconstitutional". Speaking to the press during a tour of a migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, Trump repeated claims that there are many immigrants who are now citizens and have been committing serious crimes.
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Trump to deport US citizens?
The US President called for the deportation of some US citizens who have committed crimes, like 'hitting people with a baseball bat.' "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. "So maybe that will be the next job."
He said that people who kill others by wacking a baseball bat on their head or knifing needed to be thrown out of the US, even though they were citizens, and called it his administration's 'next job'.
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'I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that will be the next job,' Trump added.
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The President also mentioned New York, adding that the city had seen many such incidents, which, he said, weren't accidents. 'Even if we forget about them, we've had some very bad accidents in New York. They were not accidents,' he said.
Trump acknowledged that he didn't know if deporting US citizens who are convicted of crimes is legal.
"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," he added. "I don't know if we do or not, we're looking at that right now."
Trump's proposals 'unconstitutional'
Trump's proposal came weeks after Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate released a memo giving US attorneys wide discretion to decide when to pursue the denaturalization process to "advance the Administration's policy objectives", reported ABC News. Individuals who have engaged in torture, war crimes, human trafficking and human rights violations are some of the cases US attorney should pursue, the memo says.
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Legal experts have flagged that Trump's proposals are unconstitutional claiming they violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The issue has not come before the courts yet.
Amanda Frost, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told ABC News in April that the administration could try to target naturalized US citizens, who can lose their immigration status if they've committed treason or falsified information during their naturalization process. However, she said those instances are rare.
"If someone's a naturalized citizen, there could be an effort to denaturalize that person and deport them," Frost said. "But then it would have to be that they committed some sort of fraud or error in their naturalization process. An unrelated crime could not be the basis for denaturalizing and deporting somebody."
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Last month, the US Justice Department issued a memo stating it will revoke citizenship of certain people, including those who committed crimes, espionage, or concealed material facts by wilful misrepresentation. The report also stated that if implemented, the Donald Trump administration's move will impact as many as 25 million US citizens.
'The citizenship of individuals will be revoked if they engage in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses; to remove naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the United States; and to prevent convicted terrorists from returning to US soil or traveling internationally on a US passport,' the memo read.