Donald Trump is once again saying the quiet part out loud—and it’s terrifying. This week, the president flat-out declared that undocumented migrants should not be granted trials before being deported, arguing the sheer number of people makes due process inconvenient.
“You can’t have a trial for all of these people,” Trump said from the Oval Office, referring to migrants he’s trying to remove en masse. “It wasn’t meant [to be that way]… And a judge can’t say, ‘No, you have to have a trial.’”
Instead, he’s pushing to fast-track deportations—including for people whose lives may be in danger—on the basis that trials take too long. His solution? Skip the justice system entirely.
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Trump Thinks Due Process Is Optional
Trump posted to his social media platform that it would “take, without exaggeration, 200 years” to give everyone a trial, calling the idea “not possible to do.”
Let’s be clear: immigration cases are not full-blown criminal trials. Most go through streamlined hearings with immigration judges. It’s already a barebones system—one that lawyers and human rights groups say is stacked against migrants, especially those without legal representation.
Saying it’s too slow, so let’s just deport people with no hearing at all? That’s not reform. That’s authoritarianism in a baseball cap.
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The Supreme Court Stepped In. Barely.
The president’s remarks came after the Supreme Court issued a temporary block on the deportation of a group of Venezuelan migrants. The administration had tried to remove them under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act—yes, 1798, a law older than the lightbulb.
The American Civil Liberties Union argued the migrants faced deportation “without notice or an opportunity to be heard”—a clear due process violation. The Court sided with the ACLU for now, but Trump’s administration continues to challenge their ability to intervene.
This isn’t just about legal procedure—it’s about whether people can be detained, disappeared, and deported without ever seeing a courtroom.
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Remember Kilmar Abrego Garcia? He Was Wrongfully Deported—and He’s Still in Prison
Trump’s approach to deportation isn’t hypothetical—it’s already producing real-world horrors. Case in point: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident wrongly deported to El Salvador.
He was sent to the country’s infamous CECOT mega-prison, accused of gang ties that his family and lawyers firmly deny. Trump officials are calling it a win. Human rights advocates are calling it what it is: a kidnapping.
Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Robert Garcia and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, have traveled to El Salvador to demand his release. Garcia put it plainly:
“Kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.”
Unless Trump gets his way.
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It’s Not About Safety—It’s About Power
Trump paints a picture of chaos: mentally ill migrants, violent criminals, overflowing systems. But what he’s really saying is this—if due process is inconvenient, toss it out.
That’s not border security. That’s how democracies unravel. The Constitution doesn’t say “unless it takes too long.” It guarantees due process for everyone—yes, even non-citizens.
So when Trump shrugs off trials as optional? Believe him. He’s not trying to fix the system. He’s trying to rewrite the rules.
