Originally published in Newsweek on April 17, 2025.
While it may sound far-fetched, the Trump administration is asserting that it has unlimited power to remove anyone it wants from the country. According to them, that means you—the person reading this article—could be expelled from the United States without meaningful recourse.
Even more chilling, the administration has claimed it could make a deal with a foreign power to imprison you indefinitely. And if it made a mistake? It could simply say that it has no authority to bring you back.
You might wonder whether this is hyperbole. I hope that it is. U.S. citizens are supposed to be protected from deportation. But what is happening no longer fits that definition. Removal from the U.S. requires due process, but the administration has flouted those safeguards in favor of rapidly sending people out of the country. It now claims it might permanently dispatch U.S. citizens to the same prison in El Salvador, while also washing its hands of the ability to bring anyone back.