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‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents
President-elect Donald Trump confirmed his commitment to ending constitutionally protected birthright citizenship, and initiating the mass deportation of American citizens — including minor children — with at least one undocumented parent, a pledge he emphasized throughout the 2024 campaign.
“I’m talking about parents who might be here illegally, but the kids are here legally,” NBC News’ Kristen Welker told Trump in a “Meet the Press” interview that aired Sunday. NBC News described Trump’s plan as a “mass deportation effort.”
“Your border czar Tom Homan said they can be deported together. Is that the plan?”
“I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump said.
“Even kids who are here legally?” Welker asked, suggesting there are around four million families who Trump is saying he would deport.
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“Look, we have to have rules and regulations,” Trump claimed. “You can always find something out like, you know, this doesn’t work, that doesn’t work. I’ll tell you what’s gonna be horrible, when we take a wonderful young woman who’s with a criminal, and they show the woman and she could stay by the law, but they show the woman being taken out, or they want her out and your cameras are focused on her as she’s crying as she’s being taken out of our country, and then the public turns against us. But we have to do our job. And you have to have a series of standards and a series of laws. And in the end, look, our country is a mess.”
HuffPost adds that later in the interview, Trump promised to deport U.S. citizens to countries where they may have never even visited, “humanely.”
“We’ll send the whole family, very humanely, back to the country where they came. That way the family’s not separated,” he said. “The family may decide to say, ‘I’d rather have Dad go, and we’ll stay here.’ And in which case they have that option.”
Welker also said to Trump, “You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one.”
“Correct,” the President-elect replied.
“Is that still your plan?” she asked.
“Yeah. Absolutely,” Trump vowed.
HuffPost also reports that “in the interview, Trump vowed to use an executive action to end birthright citizenship, something that is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.”
“When asked if that’s even possible, he said, ‘Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.’ He incorrectly said that America is the only country to have birthright citizenship — about three dozen countries, including Canada and Mexico, provide birthright citizenship.”
Birthright citizenship means children born in this country are automatically U.S. citizens, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. The 14th Amendment guarantees this right.
Back in September, just days after his lie that migrants from Haiti are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats” of the residents of Springfield, Ohio, Trump, apparently for the first time, invoked language used by the far-right in Europe to vow he will also forcibly deport millions of legal immigrants from those swing states and the rest of the country if elected President in November.
Trump called for “remigration,” the forceful deportation of immigrants, including those in the U.S. under lawful and unlawful circumstances. He vowed to “end the migrant invasion of America,” and falsely characterized some programs that allow legal entry to the U.S. under law.
Legal experts have said Trump’s plan to deport U.S. citizens is unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment, but the ultimate arbiter will likely be the Roberts Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 right-wing majority, including three justices who Trump appointed during his first term. That same court handed Trump sweeping immunity, saying any action a president takes during the course of their duties cannot be prosecuted.
On Friday, before the interview aired, California Attorney General Rob Bonta on his official social media account on X wrote: “Donald Trump likes to do what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants, regardless of the constitution or the rule of law. We’re preparing to hold him accountable for lawbreaking.”
Overnight, on his personal X account, Bonta added:
“Trump admits he plans to deport…wait for it…US citizens
Um, that’s not a thing
& it’s unlawful
While Trump wants to do what he wants, when & how he wants, the presidency is limited in its authority by the Constitution & rule of law
If Trump breaks the law, we’ll stop him.”
READ MORE: How Hegseth and Allies Are Waging War Against the US Military to Secure His Confirmation
Earlier last week Bonta sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper to lay out his plan to fight Trump if he engages in unconstitutional acts.
California AG prepares for legal battles with new Trump WH
Watch the full video here: https://t.co/KUmIc30xGr pic.twitter.com/Yv8371oKKq— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) December 2, 2024
Other critics also blasted the President-elect.
“The forced deportation of roughly five million U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents would rank among the worst atrocities this country has ever carried out in its history,” observed attorney and immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
“Trump talking casually about violating the Constitution and deporting legal US citizens… this should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country,” wrote California Democratic state Senator Sasha Renée Pérez.
Immigration attorney Allen Orr, Jr. warned, “No, a President / #Trump cannot deport U.S. citizens. Under the 14th Amendment, U.S. citizenship cannot be revoked arbitrarily. See: Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967).”
Ahmed Baba, a columnist at The Independent and co-founder of Rantt Media responded, writing: “1) We warned Trump would try to target legal immigrants and US citizens. 2) This move is incredibly illegal, just like his call to end birthright citizenship. 3) We’re about to find out how far-right the Supreme Court has truly become when these moves are tested in court.”
“Trump is promising a lot of illegal and unconstitutional moves,” he also wrote. “Many of them will be immediately slowed by the courts. He’s not all powerful. How much SCOTUS lets this lame duck POTUS violate the constitution will be the key metric of how bad things get.”
Professor of Law and immigration attorney Charles Kuck warned undocumented parents with children who are U.S. citizens, “Trump will order DOS [Dept. of State] to not issue passports. Folks who have little kids should be getting the passports now.”
“Trump will be issuing an executive order on January 20, 2025, ordering the Department of State to stop issuing US Passports to children born in the US to undocumented parents, and possibly even to parents on nonimmigrant visas, it is essential that those children be applying for US Passports immediately, using the expedite option from Department of State,” he added. “It is also highly likely that he will order USCIS to refuse to accept Form I-130 petitions from US citizen children for undocumented parents. So, file the Petitions now! I have no doubt that the courts will strike this down as unconstitutional, but it will not be a fast fight.”
Immigration attorney Curtis Morrison late Sunday night concurred: “If you’re the undocumented parent of US citizen kids but those kids don’t have US passports, take care of that tomorrow.”
Trump confirms that he plans to deport US citizens who have undocumented parents pic.twitter.com/fsmjwH1KAT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2024
Cecilia Vega asks: “Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?”
“Of course there is. Families can be deported together,” says Tom Homan, head of ICE during Trump’s family separation policy. https://t.co/If9G1sNEzj pic.twitter.com/TIWhi25Vdu
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 28, 2024
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
