Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" pointed out that Donald Trump's officials were trying "to have it both ways" as they fight legal challenges to their actions.
Border czar Tom Homan stated last week that he didn't care what judges think about the administration's deportations, although he walked back that claim Sunday and said they would abide by court orders "as litigated." "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire pondered Monday about what he meant.
"The administration seems to want to have it both ways," Lemire said. "They keep insisting publicly, 'Hey, we're adhering to court orders, we're not violating them, at least not yet.' But they are criticizing the judges and seem to be foreshadowing that, 'Hey, at some point we might.'"
A federal judge has questioned the lack of due process for immigrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act, an order which the president claimed he did not actually sign. NBC News correspondent David Rohde was baffled by the lack of clarity as the administration sends migrants to El Salvador, Venezuela and other foreign countries.
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"What's so frankly bizarre about that exchange that President Trump is now saying he didn't, you know, he didn't sign this executive order," Rohde said. "So how are they deporting these people? It's this pattern, sort of the president trying to have it both ways.
"I think more concerning is what Tom Homan is saying: 'We are going to deport people without them seeing judges,' and it's this theme of the concentration of power that this administration, this White House, is going to deport people. It's going to do whatever it wants, and there should be no, you know, branch, no other branch of government that challenges them doing that."
"So if he did not sign that executive order," Rohde added, "then those people bluntly, under American law, I would assume should come back."
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