Does This Deportation Violate Trump's Second Amendment Executive Order?

No one disputes that Duwayne Baugh is a convicted felon, but is he really a “serial career criminal” who should be deported back to Jamaica as the Department of Homeland Security alleges?

The 49-year-old, who hasn’t lived in Jamaica for decades, is a green card holder who lives in New York City. In 2007 Baugh pled guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree after he accidentally shot himself in the groin with a gun. Baugh maintains that a friend had asked him to bring the pistol to a “buyback” event on Staten Island when it discharged, but because he had no license to carry he was sentenced to two years in prison and two years on parole.

In 2020 Baugh was once again caught illegally possessing a firearm, this time after his son had been brutally stabbed.

In the days after the stabbing, as his son lay in a hospital bed recovering from a punctured lung, colon and kidney, the family faced threats from the assailant and his associates warning them not to go to the police. Baugh bought a gun.

“When you live in certain places, you can’t just say, ‘I’m going to the cops,’ cause then you’re bound to get killed yourself,” Baugh recalled.

Hee had the gun on him while he was drinking outside a pizzeria when police approached on the evening of Dec. 1, 2020 at around 6:15 p.m., according to court documents.

Baugh went inside and tried to hide the weapon under the sink inside the pizzeria’s bathroom. The officers found the gun there, and arrested him. While he was initially charged by the NYPD, federal prosecutors later took up the case, charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Baugh ended up doing eight months in a federal prison for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, and when he was released in 2023 the Biden administration sought to deport him. After remaining in ICE custody for more than six months, however, Baugh was released so that he could care for his wife Kaiisha, who is suffering from cancer. He was still required to wear an ankle monitor and regularly check in with ICE, and apparently had complied with all of the conditions of his release.

Still, on August 13 Baugh was taken into custody when he reported to an ICE facility in New York, and the federal government is once again moving forward with deporting him. In a statement provided to Newsweek, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said:

“Duwayne Hylton Baugh is an illegal alien from Jamaica with an extensive criminal history including an arrest for criminal possession of a firearm and drug possession in 1997. In 1998, he was charged with trespassing. In 2007, he was charged AGAIN with illegal possession of a firearm and an ammunition feeding device. In 2020, he was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds, and unlawful possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device. In 2022, he was convicted of weapons trafficking. ICE arrested this serial career criminal on August 13, 2025. He will remain in custody pending removal proceedings.”

Virtually every one of Baugh’s convictions were for non-violent, possessory offenses, and while his 2022 conviction may have been for weapons trafficking, it sounds like it was based solely on the 2020 charges of criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds, and unlawful possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device.

The Department of Justice has taken the position that bans on “large capacity” magazines are unconstitutional, so it’s troubling that DHS is using a conviction for possessing one as part of the basis for deporting Baugh. It’s equally troubling, though, that the agency is also pointing to a decades-old conviction for possessing a firearm in New York City without a license as grounds for deportation, given that the average New York resident couldn’t obtain a permit to carry in the Big Apple in 2007.

These actions violate the spirit of President Donald Trump’s executive order protecting Second Amendment rights. No, Baugh isn’t a U.S. citizen, but lawful permanent residents can purchase and possess firearms so long as they can pass a background check. Baugh’s first conviction was arguably the result of an unconstitutional licensing regime, and his most recent conviction might never have happened if New York had a “shall issue” system in place back in 2007.

Admittedly, I have my own bias in favor of wanting to see Duwayne Baugh released from custody. His wife is terminally ill from cancer, and he’s her primary caregiver. Having gone through a similar experience, I can’t imagine my wife having to go through the last months of her life without me by her side. Even if his wife was perfectly healthy, though, I’m not convinced that two convictions for merely possessing a firearm makes Baugh a “serial career criminal”, much less a dangerous person who puts us all at risk by remaining in the United States.

In most of the country, possessing a firearm without a license isn’t a crime at all, but it made Baugh a felon thanks to New York’s draconian gun laws. It’s not accurate to call Baugh a “law-abiding citizen”, but I think it’s just as inaccurate to label him a dangerous criminal. Arguably, Baugh is a victim of New York’s unconstitutional gun control laws, and it doesn’t sit well with me that DHS is citing those laws as justification to kick him out of the country.

Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Bearing Arms’ conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.

Join Bearing Arms VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!

Read the full article here