Stephen Miller, a top adviser to Trump, informed reporters on Friday that the administration is considering measures to eliminate due process protections for immigrants in the country without authorization.
Miller stated, “The Constitution clearly states, as it stands as the ultimate law of the land, that the right to the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended during an invasion. This is an action we are seriously considering,” as he spoke from the White House driveway.
“A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not,” Miller said.
The White House did not immediately provide clarification regarding whether Miller was discussing a particular group of individuals who have entered the country illegally or all such individuals. It also did not elaborate on his remark about the courts doing “the right thing.”
In his remarks, Miller maintained that the courts don’t have jurisdiction in immigration cases. “The courts aren’t just at war with the executive branch; the courts are at war, these radical rogue judges, with the legislative branch as well too. So all of that will inform the choices the president ultimately makes,” he said.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced frustration about constitutional due process protections slowing down his efforts at mass deportations.
“I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” he said in an interview with Kristen Welker that aired Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Welker pointed out the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says “no person” shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” and that the Supreme Court has long recognized that noncitizens have certain basic rights, but Trump complained that those protections take too much time.
“I don’t know. It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials,” he said, adding that some of the people the administration wants to deport are “murderers” and “drug dealers.”
Welker then asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution.
“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”
The administration has already skirted due process in some deportation cases after Trump invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act to send alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to a prison in El Salvador.
The proclamation said the gang “is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.” Three federal judges in different states have found the gang’s criminal activities aren’t tantamount to an invasion.
