Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, right, stands with supporters during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“This is sick,” said US Rep. Don Beyer of Northern Virginia.
Virginia Democrats are calling out the Trump administration for its brazen immigration policies after President Donald Trump suggested on Monday the possibility of deporting American citizens.
“We always have to obey the laws, but 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 at the White House on Monday. “I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country.”
Trump’s remarks have alarmed law school professors, who noted that immigration law does not give the government the authority to deport US citizens. “It is pretty obviously illegal and unconstitutional,” Ilya Somin, a professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, told NBC News.
Trump’s remarks come as his administration aggressively pushes to deport people under questionably legal circumstances. The cases include that of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor who lives in Arlington and was detained in March without a criminal charge. More than 20 international students in Virginia have also had their visas revoked, according to figures compiled by Inside Higher Ed, in some cases without any explanation.
The Trump administration’s actions have drawn increasing scrutiny from Democrats, who are calling on Trump to follow the law and warning about the dangerous territory his administration is dragging the country into.
US Rep. Don Beyer of Northern Virginia on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s refusal to comply with a US Supreme Court order that a legal US resident and Maryland father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, be returned to the US after the administration illegally and mistakenly sent him to a prison in El Salvador.
“Trump wants to do the same things to U.S. citizens,” Beyer posted on X. “This is sick.”
Vance and Trump labeled Kilmar Abrego Garcia a “terrorist” with no evidence and disappeared him to a foreign prison. He wasn’t convicted of a crime. Now Trump and Vance are violating a Supreme Court order. That’s not due process.
And they want to do this to American citizens. https://t.co/wW7J0fiY58 pic.twitter.com/EsqPGFq3Pt
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) April 15, 2025
US Rep. Bobby Scott of Hampton Roads responded to Trump’s remarks with a post about the need to respect the rule of law.
“You cannot just declare someone to be a dangerous criminal, without a trial, and deport them, and even if there is a trial, it is the Judge, not the President, who imposes the sentence according to the law, not politics,” Scott posted on X.
US Rep. Gerry Connolly of Northern Virginia said on X that Trump has a duty to help return Abrego Garcia to the US.
“Enough of this blatant lawlessness,” Connolly said. “Obey the courts and return him home today.”
US Rep. Jennifer McClellan of Virginia said the reality Abrego Garcia has had to deal with because of the Trump administration is “horrifying.”
Imagine you’re driving home with your five year old. You’re pulled over, accused of being in a gang and shipped to a notorious prison in El Salvador with no hearing. Officials admit they sent you by mistake, in defiance of a court order, and just ignore a unanimous SCOTUS… pic.twitter.com/qH7aTt2ebl
— Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (@RepMcClellan) April 15, 2025
US Rep. Eugene Vindman, who came to the US as a refugee, said the Trump administration’s “illegal and lawless actions” regarding the “wrongful deportation” of Abrego Garcia are “un-American.”
US Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia also weighed in on X, saying Tuesday that, “Trump’s defiance of the Supreme Court threatens all of our rights. I will continue to press for Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release.”
The Trump administration has claimed that Abrego Garcia is a gang member, but has produced no evidence to back up that claim, which the father of three denies. The administration has even acknowledged that it had wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia, who has lived in the US for nearly 14 years.
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said last week that the Trump administration’s “administrative error” in wrongfully deporting her husband has destroyed her family’s happiness.
“Kilmar, if you can hear me, I’m still fighting for you,” she said, fighting back tears.
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