On multiple occasions, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of deporting naturalized U.S. citizens, including during a recent visit to a Florida detention camp for immigrants. But that policy could end up being used against his own family.
That's according to former MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid, who recently interviewed Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on her YouTube podcast. The Daily Beast reported that Jayapal joined Reid to discuss, among other things, Trump's new "Alligator Alcatraz" facility in the Florida Everglades. They both pointed out to listeners that Trump said during his visit to the prison camp earlier this week that even native-born U.S. citizens could one day find themselves in federal custody.
"They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country," Trump said. "I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth."
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Trump also floated that proposal to El Salvadoran President Nayyib Bukele during visit to the White House in April. NPR reported at the time that Trump said "homegrowns" born in the U.S. could one day be sent to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, which is notorious for flagrant human rights abuses. Reid said there was nothing theoretically stopping a future administration from targeting Trump's wife and family members.
"If you give the president of the United States monarchical-like powers to say, ‘I don’t like your views, I don’t like your take on issues, I don’t like that you’re too liberal, you’re not conservative enough, I’m just gonna take away your naturalized citizenship,‘ well ... If we ever get a Democratic president, they could say, ‘I don’t like Melania Trump. She wasn’t born here. She was born in Slovenia. She is a naturalized citizen. She’s outta here,'" Reid said.
"“And by the way, Ivana Trump, the late Ivana Trump, who’s buried in the golf course in New Jersey in Donald Trump’s golf club, she wasn’t an American citizen. And three of her children are Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka," Reid added. "And maybe the next Democratic president says, ‘You know what? I don’t like the Trumps. And so we’re gonna denaturalize all of the Trump children, whose mother was a foreigner at the time.'"
Trump hasn't yet denaturalized a U.S. citizen, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously suggested that the administration hadn't ruled out a denaturalization investigation into New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to conduct denaturalization proceedings over rap lyrics Mamdani wrote in 2017.
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Watch Reid's interview with Jayapal below, or by clicking this link.