_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
Recent comments made by President Donald Trump during a “Meet the Press” interview have sparked a debate over due process and the extent to which noncitizens are entitled to Fifth Amendment protections.
The Fifth Amendment states that “no person” shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
Some argue these protections apply to illegal border crossers, but Trump and his allies disagree, arguing it would lead to millions of court hearings and significantly delay deportations.
_THE FACTS_
When asked during the interview if noncitizens deserve due process rights, President Trump responded, "I don't know. I'm not a lawyer," deferring to his legal team.
Trump argued that granting due process to every deportable migrant would result in "millions of court cases," claiming it would take "300 years" to process them all.
The Trump administration has been fast-tracking immigration cases by allowing judges to dismiss asylum claims without hearings.
In 2021, Circuit Judge Lawrence Van Dyke ruled that noncitizens in deportation proceedings are not entitled to the same constitutional rights as criminal defendants.
One Georgetown University law professor asserted that the Fifth Amendment is “not open to interpretation,” and that “The Supreme Court has said it applies to anyone in the United States for more than 100 years now.”
On the other hand, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller stated, “The right of ‘due process’ is to protect citizens from their government, not to protect foreign trespassers from removal.”
Miller continued, “Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.”
_INSIGHTS_
The slow-moving bureaucracy and court backlogs have long hindered deportations. If every migrant had a court hearing, it could very possibly take centuries to process cases, as Trump contends.
While the president’s critics argue that due process applies to citizens and noncitizens alike, the Constitution does not clearly spell out how these protections apply to illegal migrants. Immigration hawks like Stephen Miller imply that the Founding Fathers surely did not intend for these protections to apply to millions of foreign trespassers.
At the end of the day, President Trump has a mandate for his deportation agenda, and he and those in his administration will likely find any reason to forge ahead.
