WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King released the below statement following the President’s Oval Office meeting with El Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele:

“The recent actions of the Trump Administration in connection with the deportations to a prison in El Salvador, culminating in yesterday’s meeting in the Oval Office, should strike fear and outrage in every American.

“Putting two and two together, the President now claims the power to deport anyone he feels might be guilty of a crime with no proof or legal process whatsoever and then says he cannot get them back, even if they are later found to have been sent by mistake.

“This latter is nonsense, by the way; he has plenty of diplomatic tools at his disposal if he’d pursue them.

“Add to this the President’s broad idea of what constitutes a crime—he thinks treason is disloyalty or criticism of him, for example—and his hot mic suggestion yesterday that ‘homegrowns [that means American citizens] are next’ and literally no one is safe.

And finally, yesterday’s actions are a clear violation of an order directly from the Supreme Court which underlines the lawless nature of this administration.

The President and those acting on his behalf have taken numerous steps in the past 90 days that are in violation of law, the Constitution, and simple human decency, but this is the most chilling. It is now past time for Congress, the courts, and the people to draw the line and put a stop to this ongoing abuse of everything this country stands for.”

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