Did I stutter?
The thing about the Constitution is that for close 238 years we’ve been studying it and dissecting it over and over. Each sentence has been pushed into the courts at some point. One of the clearest of them all is the right to due process. It’s so important that it’s in the original Bill of Rights in the 5th Amendment and again in the 14th Amendment insuring the states understand they have to follow it as well.
It says in the 5th, “No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
And again in the 14th, “…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Notice that word they used twice? PERSON!
It doesn’t say citizen. It doesn’t have a caveat like “any innocent person.” It says, “person.” The Supreme Court has ruled on a host of cases surrounding this right as noted by the official Congressional website on the Constitution.
“Eventually, the Supreme Court extended these constitutional protections to all aliens within the United States, including those who entered unlawfully, declaring that aliens who have once passed through our gates, even illegally, may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law. The Court reasoned that aliens physically present in the United States, regardless of their legal status, are recognized as persons guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Thus, the Court determined, [e]ven one whose presence in this country is unlawful, involuntary, or transitory is entitled to that constitutional protection. Accordingly, notwithstanding Congress’s indisputably broad power to regulate immigration, fundamental due process requirements notably constrained that power with respect to aliens within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”
(Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 212 (1953); see also Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 77 (1976) (There are literally millions of aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States. The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, protects every one of these persons from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.); Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 215 (1982) (holding that unlawfully present aliens were entitled to both due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment)
It reminds me of that popular meme of Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount when he tells his followers to love one and other as they love themselves and people offer different excuses…and he replies…
The Founders did not stutter
Now we see that Republicans in their obsession with ridding our nation of any immigrants are trying to redefine the word “anyone” to fit their vision. Much like they seem to pick and choose the parts of the Bible they like, they are on a mission to pick and choose the parts of the Constitution.
Now they are attacking and misrepresenting the entire concept of due process to just some people. You’ve even got lunatics like MAGA Rep. Victoria Spartz declaring that if you commit a crime you aren’t entitled to due process at all at a recent raucous town hall.
There isn’t any wiggle room here. James Madison did not stutter either. Neither did the writers of the 14th Amendment after our bloody Civil War. Neither did the Supreme Court when reaffirming the term multiple times. They make it clear that due process itself can mean different things based on circumstances from a full court trial to an evidentiary hearing in immigration court.
Due process does include the opportunity to present evidence of innocence or mitigating circumstances perhaps. For example, when ICE says your tattoos are gang symbols but they are actually an Autism Awareness ribbon, you can tell an immigration judge and get your deportation stopped.
That’s precisely what didn’t happen to the hundreds of Venezuelan men shipped to El Salvador’s CECOT without any due process in a rush to beat a court order stopping it. Agents scooped them up for a host of obscure reasons, declared them gang members, and shipped them to a third world hell hole in our name.
Democrats and advocates have been outraged and fighting to stop these illegal efforts and the use of the Alien Enemies Act in a way it is not meant for. The Trump Administration and their propagandists are saying that opponents are trying to protect gang bangers and criminals.
No! Don’t let them shape it that way. Due process is for everyone for a reason. We aren’t protecting the criminals. We are fighting to protect the Constitution and our civil rights.
It’s a simple thing:
Without due process for everyone, there is no due process for anyone.
There is a lot to discuss
I wanted to dive deeper into this topic so for this weeks ‘On Democracy with FPWellman’ show I sat down with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. He has been extensively covering the Trump Administration’s attacks on immigration and the rule of law including testifying to Congress last week.
I asked him about the lies that monsters like Stephen Miller are floating that we owe each accused a million dollar trial or that they don’t deserve due process as laid out in the law. We went on to discuss the true scope of the issue and the danger to average Americans from these efforts by Trump.
Watch the entire episode now!
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