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Friday, Apr. 18, 2025

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A popular mantra of President Donald Trump’s critics is "This is not normal."

But "normal" is only determined by what a society is willing to accept. Case in point: The administration's treatment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the Maryland man the administration admits it mistakenly deported to a brutal El Salvadoran prison but claims it now can't return — is an attempt to normalize the extrajudicial deportation of undocumented immigrants like Abrego Garcia and perhaps even U.S. citizens.

Vice President JD Vance has now joined the chorus of voices in Trump's Cabinet eager to justify Abrego Garcia's illegal deportation by throwing the nation's core principle of due process to authoritarian wolves.

Apparently not occupied with the duties of the vice presidency, Vance has spent hours this week arguing with journalists on social media. 

"To say the administration must observe 'due process' is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors," Vance wrote on Tuesday.

This is a preview of Michael Steele's latest article. Read the full column here. For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch "The Weekend" every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.

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REP. MARK TAKANO

The U.S. rounded up my parents during World War II. Trump is reviving that cruelty

People like my family — people who have not been charged with any crime — are again being rounded up without due process.