Secretary of State Marco Rubio: 'Of course' all people in the U.S. are entitled to due process [View all]

Source: NBC News

April 27, 2025, 11:21 AM EDT / Updated April 27, 2025, 11:44 AM EDT


Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s agenda of deporting undocumented immigrants but said that “of course” all people in the U.S. are entitled to due process. “Yes, of course,” Rubio told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when asked whether citizens and noncitizens in the U.S. are entitled to due process. His comments come as the Trump administration has pressed the courts to allow the immediate deportations of immigrants it accuses of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.

Last week, the Supreme Court asked the administration to pause deportations of some Venezuelan men based in Texas who the Trump administration said were members of Tren de Aragua, with attorneys for the immigrants asking for them not to be deported “before the American judicial system can afford them due process.”

That decision came after the Supreme Court in early April allowed the Trump administration to move forward with some deportations under the AEA as long as detainees “receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act.” “The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the Supreme Court justices added.

On Sunday, the secretary of state defended the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, which have included deporting three children who are U.S. citizens — ages 2, 4 and 7 — alongside their mothers, according to The Washington Post. “Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers,” Rubio told moderator Kristen Welker. “If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States if there’s their father or someone here who wants to assume them. But ultimately, who was deported was their mother, their mothers who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers,” the secretary of state added.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/secretary-state-marco-rubio-all-people-us-entitled-due-process-rcna203193