Democratic Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley warned President Donald Trump that his mass deportation efforts are “not going to end well” for him, during comments from the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner over the weekend.
Merkley’s warning came after being asked about his thoughts on Trump’s deportation policies and Democrats’ efforts to challenge them, specifically their decision to visit alleged Venezuelan gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, after the Trump administration deported him.
Democrats insist Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported in the president’s sweeping decision to remove hundreds of mostly Venezuelan gang members from the United States, arguing Abrego Garcia is not a gang member despite the Trump administration’s insistence that he is.
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“You know due process is a – it sounds very scholarly but it’s basically what prevents the government from sweeping you, or me, off the street,” Merkley said when asked his thoughts on Democrats’ defense of Abrego Garcia. “[Due process] is extraordinarily important for freedom.”
“I want President Trump to understand this is about freedom and that what he’s doing is undermining it,” Merkley continued. “It’s not going to end well for him because our nation is going to respond, and we are going to defend our Constitution and our freedom.”
The White House, meanwhile, slammed Merkley and other Democrats for choosing to die on a hill defending a documented criminal who was residing in the United States illegally.
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“If the hill that Democrats want to die on is demanding the return of a violent illegal alien, wifebeater, and foreign terrorist, we are happy to dig that grave for them,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Fox News Digital in response to Merkley’s comments.
In addition to Trump’s deportation of Abrego Garcia, Democrats have also been up in arms over the president’s decision to rescind student visas and deport non-citizen college students in the U.S. who have allegedly been involved in organizing anti-Israel, and some have argued anti-Semitic, protests on college campuses.
The Trump administration has cited federal law that allows immigration enforcement against visa-holders deemed a national security threat.
On Monday, Trump also signed an executive order aimed at rescinding local sanctuary city policies that prevented local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
The new order seeks to hold federal funds hostage and allows the Justice Department to pursue “all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures” to bring non-compliant jurisdictions back into compliance with the new order.
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