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Trump's deportations are helping criminals escape [1]
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Date: 2025-05-20
In today’s episode of “Who Could Have Guessed?”, it turns out that Trump’s deportations are having unintended consequences. No, I'm not referring to the harm to the economy that everyone with half a brain predicted. It’s that Trump’s effort to supposedly “Make America Safe” is actually making America more dangerous. Trump is actually helping criminals to escape prosecution for actual crimes for which they’ve been arrested and indicted.
This is happening in two ways. First, criminals are being deported before they can stand trial. And this can make Americans less safe. Says District Attorney Brian Mason of Colorado’s Adams County:
"It's not only undermining to the justice system but also impacting community safety...My fear that is that people will get deported, will essentially avoid criminal prosecution, will sneak back into the country ... and live under the radar and never be held accountable and suffer no consequences whatsoever for their actions, and potentially perpetrate more crimes against other victims.
Prof. Michael Kagan, who runs the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas law school, said that these deportations are having a “significant negative impact”. A prosecutor in a Denver suburb counts at least six cases he had to drop because the accused was deported. Prosecutors and attorneys across the country are reporting similar cases.
Legal experts also blame the Laken Riley Act for adding to the number of these deportations. While the act only requires that accused criminals be detained, many end up getting deported, making prosecution impossible.
These deportations also deny innocent people the chance to clear their names, not that Trump or any MAGA cares about this. But normal people with the ability to empathize do care.
The other problem is that witnesses in criminal cases are being deported, resulting in trials being cancelled and criminals being set free due to lack of evidence. In addition, witnesses who have not been deported are refusing to come to court to testify out of fear of being detained and deported by ICE. The result is the same — trials cancelled, criminals set free.
According to Mason:
"If a victim of crime is afraid to come to the Adams County courthouse because she's afraid she'll get detained in the parking lot by ICE, then I can't prosecute that case," he said. "It's not only undermining to the justice system but also impacting community safety."
Before all this, Mason used to work with ICE to procure what’s known as U-visas to allow crime victims to stay in the country to testify in court. Under Trump, that’s no longer happening.
ICE as “Getaway Driver”
Ironically, Trump may be creating a two-tiered justice system where Americans are treated worse than the immigrants that Trump wants to hurt. American citizens are imprisoned if they’re convicted, while the immigrants get deported and set free. And immigrant criminals can intentionally take advantage of this.
According to Prof. Michael Kagan, who runs the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas law school:
Some immigration experts have begun referring to ICE as a "getaway driver" because they believe the new system is ripe for abuse by offenders: "The U.S. citizen has to face trial and serious prison time while the non-citizen could just ask ICE to give him a ride to Mexico and get off free."
As Rick Wilson famously put it, everything Trump touches dies. His policies that are supposed to protect against dangerous criminals are actually making them more dangerous. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for MAGA to complain. Because it was never about the crime. It was always about the racism.
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