Many critics of President Donald Trump believe he wants to be a dictator.
Presidents take an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution.
But President Donald Trump, who has flirted with usurping democracy, contemplated suspending the Constitution to support his effort to deport many immigrants of color.
Alex Woodward of the Independent reported, “Frustrated with mounting losses in court, key officials in Donald Trump’s administration were seriously considering the suspension of a centuries-old constitutional right to speed up the president’s anti-immigration campaign to deport tens of thousands of people from the country.
“An explosive secret memo last year appears to address concerns among White House officials about a plan to suspend habeas corpus, a fundamental due process right enshrined in the Constitution to allow those detained by the government to challenge their imprisonment.”
White House staff secretary Will Scharf drafted the memo, writing that suspending habeas corpus rights “has only been done in the direst of circumstances,” in only a few instances in American history.
Woodward reported that White House aides told New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan that it would be “insane” to try to suspend a constitutionally guaranteed right.
Haberman and Swan are releasing a book entitled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.
Woodward added, “The memo, dated April 29, was drafted as the administration was embroiled in a high-profile legal battle over the swift removal of hundreds of Venezuelan men to a brutal prison in El Salvador, joining an avalanche of habeas complaints from immigrants rounded up by under Trump’s mass deportation efforts.”
Scharf wrote, “Even where Congress has explicitly suspended habeas corpus rights, the Supreme Court has held that some alternative process must be provided to defendants, with procedural safeguards akin to a habeas corpus action.”
One week after that memo, Stephen Miller, the White House chief of policy, admitted to reporters that the Trump administration was looking for ways to circumvent habeas corpus.
On May 9, Miller said, “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of an invasion, so that is an option we are actively looking at.”
Trump and his administration, have consistently claimed that America is under invasion from immigrants.
The 45th and 47th president has often said that America is receiving the worst of the worst when it comes to immigrants.
He has called those coming from countries like Mexico murderers and rapists.
Legal immigrants from Haiti have been castigated for allegedly eating dogs.
Despite criticizing immigrants of color, often saying that some come from s**t hole countries, Trump has welcomed White immigrants from South Africa, saying that the Black leaders of their country have mistreated them.
Woodward reported, “A divided Supreme Court allowed the president to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to summarily remove Venezuelan nationals who were accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members, but the justices stressed that immigrants are still ‘entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal’ in front of a judge.”
That is when Miller, who has been a driving force in Trump’s immigration policy, suggested that immigrants completely lose the right to challenge their removal from the country.
Responding to questions about the memo, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “Members of the Administration often have conversations about many different lawful options to implement the President’s agenda—with the President always being the ultimate decider.”
Woodward reported, “Trump, just months into his second presidency, was already facing desperate warnings from critics and legal scholars that his defiance of court orders had reached a dangerous constitutional crossroads. His suspension of a constitutional right would have escalated his war with the judiciary that he has seen as insufficiently deferential to his presidency and an obstacle in the way of his agenda.”
Many of his aides shared the same belief.
In his memo, Scharf wrote, “Throughout American history, all three branches of the federal government have been loathe to interfere with habeas corpus rights.”
Scharf shared the memo with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Scharf wrote that habeas corpus “prevents, in effect, governmental actors from detaining, imprisoning or executing individuals arbitrarily.”
Jacob Sullum of Reason wrote, “That episode is alarming insofar as it illustrates the Trump administration’s disregard for civil liberties. But it is also at least a little reassuring, since Miller’s jaw-dropping proposal was ultimately nixed by objections from White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf, a conservative attorney who explained why it was a legal nonstarter.
“Miller was right that letting detainees seek judicial review makes it harder to eject unwanted foreigners from the country. But he was wrong in thinking that President Donald Trump could avoid that requirement by executive fiat.”
Some Republicans have criticized Democrats for saying that Trump wants to be a dictator, saying that those accusations have led to assassination attempts.
But Miller’s attempt to ignore a constitutional right only adds fuel to the fire and gives credibility to Trump critics.
