The Constitution offers the president the unique and irrefutable power to issue pardons. In one of his final acts in office, Biden issued a slew of controversial preemptive pardons in January for individuals who had not committed crimes but had investigated, criticized, or worked to prosecute Trump for criminal wrongdoing.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said the nation is already in a constitutional crisis. He made these remarks at a town hall event in Ashland, his first following a dramatic vote in the U.S. Senate to keep the government open.

In other words, it was never intended to be nor has it ever been used as a power to deport people without due process for garden variety criminal activity — or no crime at all. On Friday night, Trump signed the executive order and claimed: