‘Homegrowns are next’: Trump provokes fears for Black US citizens with legally dubious deportation proposal

After the Trump administration deported hundreds of undocumented migrants accused of being violent gang members to El Salvador, President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to imply he will explore deporting U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes.

“We also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters,” Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office while hosting El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who has cooperated with the Trump administration by accepting deportees to his country and holding them in prisons.

“I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country,” added Trump. The president emphasized that he would only do so by following the law, though he admitted, “I don’t know what the laws are.” Trump explained that Attorney General Pam Bondi is studying the law on the matter.

Trump’s remarks on Monday signal an escalation of an unprecedented (and likely illegal) proposal to deport U.S. citizens. It follows similar statements from Trump’s White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said last week that the president was looking into deporting “heinous, violent criminals” who are U.S. citizens to El Salvador, adding, “if there’s a legal pathway to do that.”

The proposal is getting much pushback and condemnation from civil rights and immigration advocates. Jamarr Brown, executive director at Color of Change PAC, told theGrio he is concerned about what this means for Black American citizens.

“A policy that even considers targeting American citizens lays the groundwork for mass deportation campaigns that will disproportionately impact Black immigrants, including Haitians, Jamaicans, and others from the Caribbean and across the diaspora,” said Brown. “This is not just about immigration. It’s about the erosion of democracy, the abandonment of the rule of law, and the weaponization of government against our communities.”

Trump’s statements also come as his administration admitted to wrongfully deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland husband and father who was not charged with any crime and was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to be returned to the United States. However, the Trump administration pushed back and argued that now that Abrego Garcia is in El Salvador, he is outside the government’s jurisdiction and that the decision on whether he is returned is up to the Central American country. President Bukele told reporters on Monday he would not move to return Abrego Garcia.

“By refusing to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported, Trump is undermining the very safety and justice he claims to champion,” Brown told theGrio. He said Trump’s “reckless decision to sit with the President of El Salvador and flippantly reject a federal court order is a disturbing escalation of his dangerous, authoritarian agenda.”

He continued, “This was not a policy; it was a power grab. There was no real process, no adherence to legal precedent, and no respect for the constitutional rights of an American citizen.”

In the ruling against the Trump administration’s deportation of Abrego Garcia, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned about the implications for U.S. citizens if the president does not bring him back to the United States. “The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” Sotomayor wrote.

Brandon Weathersby, a spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal research firm, told theGrio that despite President Trump’s promise to “bring down costs for working Americans,” he has instead delivered “the same old politics of vengeance, retribution, and economic chaos.”

“He’s never stood with everyday people, especially not communities of color, who’ve always borne the brunt of his cruelty, from the Exonerated Five to the Americans terrorized by his cruel immigration policies,” he added. “Instead of helping families, he’s settling scores and rewriting the rules to shield himself from accountability.”

Brown of Color of Change PAC said, “This moment is a reminder that Trump’s agenda doesn’t stop at the federal level.” He continued, “That’s why Color Of Change PAC is focused on organizing for critical state and local elections, where we can elect leaders who will push back, uphold civil rights, and ensure our communities are protected from the consequences of Trump’s unchecked power.”