migrants walking with purple background and usa in background

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

As Trump ignores order to return Abrego Garcia, right-wing media falsely claim undocumented immigrants have no due process rights

Sean Hannity: “If you're in the country illegally, you don't get due process”

Written by Payton Armstrong & Jack Wheatley

Published

Right-wing media personalities have dismissed the importance of due process rights in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland resident with protected legal status who the government has admitted was wrongfully deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error” — claiming that “it would literally take 1,000 years to give 10 million illegal immigrants one hour each of ‘due process,’” and lamenting that “if every MS-13 member goes through their own hearing, we'll never get these guys out of here.” Others have claimed that “if you're in the country illegally, you don't get due process,” and said that noncitizens “do not have due process under the law like U.S. citizens do.”

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  • The Trump administration has removed hundreds of immigrants without due process including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the government admitted was deported due to “administrative error”

    • President Donald Trump has flown hundreds of undocumented immigrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act without court hearings and due process. After the administration sent 238 immigrants to CECOT, a Salvadoran megaprison that is notorious for human rights abuses, the White House and right-wing media repeatedly painted the migrants as dangerous “criminals.” A CBS News investigation “found that an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.” [ABC News, 3/26/25; CBS News, 4/6/25; Media Matters, 4/1/25]
    • The Department of Justice admitted in court filings that Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported and subsequently imprisoned in El Salvador due to an “administrative error,” but the Trump administration has been resisting a court order requiring the government “facilitate” his return. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has ordered at least four officials to give sworn testimony about the administration’s refusal to comply with her order that it facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. [The New York Times, 4/1/25; Politico, 4/15/25]
    • Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met with Abrego Garcia last week after initially being denied, and he has since “accused the Trump administration of ‘outright defying’ court orders” to return him to the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has backtracked from initial government admissions that Abrego Garcia was erroneously deported, asserting on Fox News that “we did not make a mistake.” A report that described him as an MS-13 member — based in part on wearing a “Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie” that police claimed was “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture” — was later revealed to have been authored by a now-fired Maryland officer who was suspended for misconduct “just days after the March 2019 encounter at a Home Depot in Hyattsville where Abrego Garcia was flagged as a potential MS-13 gang member.” [The New York Times, 4/20/25; BBC, 4/20/25; Twitter/X, 4/21/25; BBC, 4/17/25; USA Today, 4/17/25]
    • Due process is a fundamental right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for both citizens and noncitizens to ensure people in America are given fair legal proceedings and protected from arbitrary government decisions. Conservative and liberal Supreme Court justices alike have affirmed this right for noncitizens. When asked in 2014 whether undocumented people have rights guaranteed under the Constitution, the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia said, “Anybody who’s present in the United States has protections under the United States Constitution.” [CNN, 4/1/25; PBS, 6/25/18]
    • Right-wing media figures have previously praised Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for creating CECOT and urged the creation of similar prisons in the United States. American conservative media personalities have showered praise on Bukele’s imprisonment of alleged drug dealers in CECOT. The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles declared, “We need to learn from El Salvador, never thought I would say that sentence, but we in the United States need to follow the lead of the government of El Salvador.” [Media Matters, 3/7/23]

  • Right-wing media have dismissed Abrego Garcia’s right to due process, including by claiming that it would take too long

    • Fox News host Jesse Watters said that it’s “common sense” to deny due process to Abrego Garcia and other people being sent to the Salvadoran prison. He claimed that “if every MS-13 member goes through their own hearing, we'll never get these guys out of here.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/16/25]
    • Referencing Abrego Garcia, Fox’s Jeanine Pirro dismissed the need for due process. Pirro said that there were “legitimate reasons to get this guy out of here,” adding, “It's not about due process. It's about them being incapable of empathizing for American citizens.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/16/25]
    • Right-wing pundit Kurt Schlichter claimed that Democrats “don’t want due process. They want the criminals here.” Schlichter referred to Garcia as a “criminal scumbag” who “had already been found by a judge to be a member of MS 13, a holding that was up held on appeal.” [Twitter/X, 4/16/25]
    • In response to a post suggesting that Abrego Garcia “should have been deported, just not in defiance of a judge’s order and not to a prison in El Salvador,” Fox News digital columnist David Marcus posted, “It would literally take 1,000 years to give 10 million illegal immigrants one hour each of ‘due process.’” [Twitter/X, 4/16/25]
    • Right-wing host Vince Conglianese read a statement about Abrego Garcia’s due process rights being denied and declared, “Is this not infuriating to listen to this garbage — these lectures, from these liars? People are lying directly to your face about what is going on.” [Rumble, Vince, 4/21/25]

  • Right-wing media have made broad claims that undocumented immigrants do not have the same due process rights as American citizens

    • Fox’s Liz Peek: “I'm so sick of hearing about due process for people who are in our country illegally. They're not citizens. They do not have the due process afforded American citizens.” Guest Kenny Polcari added, “The whole due process thing goes -- for me -- goes right out the window. You're not an American citizen, so you're not entitled to due process when you've come here illegally and you've broken our laws and you've — as violent as he is.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria, 4/21/25]
    • On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity claimed, “If you're in the country illegally, you don't get due process.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/10/25]
    • Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty stated that undocumented immigrants “do not have the same rights as U.S. citizens. They do not have due process under the law like U.S. citizens do.” Echoing the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, Finnerty then complained to viewers that Democrats “have decided that these people who have nothing to do with America because they are not American are more important than you, to the point that the White House under Joe Biden tried to replace you and your vote with them.” [Newsmax, Finnerty, 4/10/25; Media Matters, 1/12/24]
    • The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo wrote that due process is “used as a legalistic motte for the open borders/pathological empathy bailey.” He added that Abrego Garcia “is a criminal who should not be in America, whatever process is required to get him out.” [Twitter/X, 4/16/25]
    • Right-wing commentator Mike Crispi claimed that “there’s no ‘due process’ when you’re an ILLEGAL ALIEN.” He added, “Stepping on our land does not afford you constitutional rights. You’re found. You get kicked out. Period.” [Twitter/X, 4/15/25]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade suggested that due process rights for undocumented immigrants be done away with because “it’s not practical.” Kilmeade said that “it's not practical to think that we can do due process on 8 million people. … There's 22 million people here at minimum, illegal already, just in the last three administrations. And there are some people that got through with Trump's administration.” He added, “If we are going to give ever these guys a day in court and a lawyer, we can't do it, they don't deserve it. Our system doesn't need to be double-burdened.” [The Independent, 3/24/25]
    • Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec wrote: “Yeah I support due process. Illegals are all due to be processed by ICE.” [Twitter/X, 4/15/25]
    • Right-wing figure Mike Cernovich: “The due process illegal immigrants are entitled to is to be removed in one piece, uninjured, and that’s historical generosity without precedent in all of humanity.” [Twitter/X, 4/20/25]
    • Radio host Bill Mitchell: “I've never understood why if you are in this country illegally, you are afforded due process in our system.” He continued, “You're here illegally. You violated our constitution coming here and clearly have no respect for it. So why should that same Constitution protect you?” [Twitter/X, 4/19/25]
    • Conservative commentator Julie Kelly claimed, “This is not about due process or habeas—this is a coordinated effort to keep illegals in this country and sabotaging the will of the American people who elected the president to solve the illegal immigration crisis.” [Twitter/X, 4/18/25]
    • On Fox News’ Gutfeld!, podcaster Michael Malice said “the issue that they’re trying to talk about due process — are we going to pretend that there aren’t plenty of American citizens who shouldn’t be deported to El Salvador as well?” He added: “If you watch the corporate press, you would think that any of us at any moment are at an option of being deported from the country. But we’re forgetting that everyone was just imprisoned in their own homes for quite some time four years ago, and there was no due process there.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/19/25]