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.
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.
Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country. This placed extraordinary burdens on our country–our schools, hospitals, housing, and other essential services were overwhelmed. On top of that, many of these illegal aliens committed…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 16, 2025
Don’t let his unearned smugness fool you. There is no question to be begged. Garcia’s due process isn’t up for debate. That question was answered in 1791, when the Fifth Amendment was ratified. And it was reaffirmed in 1993, when conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.”
Vance went on to accuse reporter Zaid Jilani of “hiding behind ‘due process’” while arguing that he has made his peace with “the reality that any human system will produce errors. Further, I accept the actual tradeoff: between not enforcing the law and enforcing the law. And I choose the latter despite the inevitable errors.”
For a man who tries to paint himself as an anti-intellectualist and who once praised President Richard Nixon for saying “professors are the enemy,” Vance is using a lot of Ivy League jargon as a smokescreen to attack a fundamental tenet of the American judicial system.
The government contends that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 based on a police assessment from 2019. Abrego Garcia’s family and his attorneys have denied that he is connected to any gang, and his lawyers claim that the police assessment is flawed. He hasn’t been charged or convicted of any crime in the U.S.
Those are the facts. So let’s cut through the lies and distortions of constitutional rights by this administration and confront the moment our country is facing: The executive branch is defending the deportation of a legal resident of the United States and defying court orders to bring him back. And it is now doubling down on that defiance while trying to distract from the hard and fast constitutional principles at stake. Trump’s officials show no signs of good-faith cooperation with the rulings requiring them to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
Normality is dictated by what a society is willing to accept. Are the American people prepared to demand accountability from this administration and pressure their elected officials to echo those calls? Trump’s officials show no signs of good-faith cooperation with the rulings requiring them to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. The idea that this might be an isolated mistake is delusional. And it should offer Americans no comfort. Why would Trump loyalists stop lying and distorting the truth — about their inability to bring Abrego Garcia home, for example, or the Supreme Court’s recent order — if they’re getting away with it? Why would they stop defying a co-equal branch of government if it helps them achieve their goals? Soon, what was once unthinkable will be the new “normal,” paving the way for even more blatantly illegal actions and more destruction of this country’s foundational principles. It has to stop here. We have to stop it. 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.
Michael Steele
Michael Steele is a co-host of "The Weeknight," which airs Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC. He is a former lieutenant governor of Maryland and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. 
