President Donald Trump pushed back against a reporter’s question in the Oval Office on Friday by questioning whether former President Joe Biden had the legal authority to permit the high influx of migrants during his administration. Trump’s administration is pressing forward with mass deportation efforts, highlighted by recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Migrant crossings dropped sharply in February, reaching their lowest recorded level in decades.
“Do you think you have the authority, the power to round up people, deport them and then you’re under no obligation to a court to show the evidence against them?” a reporter asked the president. Trump responded without hesitation: “That’s what the law says, and that’s what our country needs because … unfortunately, they allowed millions of people to come into our country. Totally unvetted, totally unchecked.”
“So you ought to ask, ‘Did he have the authority to allow millions of people?’ Did Biden have the authority to do something that’s unthinkable, have open borders where millions of people poured into our country, totally unvetted and totally unchecked, just as you would say. And many of those people were criminals,” the president added. “Many of them were from jails and prisons and mental institutions and gang members and drug dealers and very dangerous people. Many were murderers. We have 11,088 that we know of murderers. They murdered of that number. At least half killed more than one person.”
“So, when you asked me if we have the authority, did Biden have the authority to allow millions of people to come into our country? Many of these people are hardened criminals at the top of the line who have caused tremendous damage,” Trump said. The administration is facing a legal challenge over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to target suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which President Trump has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The American Civil Liberties Union has called the move an “unlawful and unprecedented invocation of the act,” according to a statement on its website.
REPORTER: Do you think you have the power to arrest illegal immigrant criminals and deport them?@POTUS: That's what the law says. You should be asking, 'Did Biden have the authority to open the border and let millions of totally unvetted people into our country?' pic.twitter.com/VnwlLvCGiJ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 21, 2025
The move has sparked a tense debate over the relationship between the federal judiciary and the administration, after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia temporarily blocked enforcement of the act. The legal battle remains ongoing as arguments continue Friday. Also, other legal experts say it is the ACLU that has it wrong.
“What the ACLU is seeking in this case is unprecedented — that a single unelected judge take upon himself the authority to micromanage the national defense of our nation. This would be a complete corruption of the principle of separation of powers, which is a bedrock feature of our Republic enshrined in the Constitution,” America First Legal Senior Counsel James Rogers said in a statement Friday, according to a news release on AFL’s brief in the case.