Why due process matters

Everything else is crap

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about due process in the national news recently —and for good reason.

I think it’s one of the most important political topics of the second Donald Trump presidency thus far, but people are getting distracted by side issues that are not relevant.

Lost in the debate being framed about whether El Salvador citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a criminal and deserved to have been deported is the fact that it all happened without due process rights.

Ignore everything else and focus on the most important part. Someone living in the United States was arrested, placed on a plane and shipped to a terrorist prison in El Salvador without ever experiencing due process.

So let’s start with the basic of basics. What is due process?

Due process is a fundamental legal principle that ensures fairness in civil and criminal matters, particularly in court. It’s rooted in history and is a core guarantee of the U.S. Constitution.

The 14th amendment’s due process clause states that “no person can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of the law.”

The important distinction in the 14th amendment is it states “no person,” not “no U.S. citizen.” That means if you are within the borders of the United States, you get due process rights as well, even if you aren’t a citizen.

And that’s what happened in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. A man who had been living in the United States for a decade was arrested, placed on a plane and shipped to a prison in another country without ever having his day in court. It doesn’t matter if he is guilty of what the government says he is guilty of. What matters is that the government still needs to at least prove it before it can act. You don’t get to be judge, jury and executioner all at once.

If the government believes Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang and is a terrorist, it needs to make its case. It needs to present evidence. It can’t just make the claim and then kick someone out of the country. Proof matters.

The reason this is so important is because if you give even 1 inch — ever — when it comes to due process rights of human beings in our country, it will destroy due process forever.

It doesn’t matter that Garcia isn’t a U.S. citizen. If we allow any exceptions for due process for anyone within our borders, it can take away due process rights for anyone.

Think about it like this. If non-citizens no longer get due process rights and lose the right to defend themselves against whatever charges have been made by the U.S. government, then all the government has to do is accuse someone of not being a citizen. Even if you are a citizen, just the accusation of being “illegal” could be enough to get someone deported to that terrorist prison in El Salvador if the government no longer has to back up its claims in court.

Some would argue that this is the “slippery slope” fallacy, but it’s not. It’s a reality. One crack in due process is all it takes and we could lose due process for everyone. Our Constitution is only as strong as the protection it offers to the least of us.

This isn’t a left or right issue. It’s potential constitutional crisis.

Already, we’ve seen the potential of how far Trump’s department of justice may be willing to push this. Trump’s counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka, speaking on Newsmax, recently claimed people who speak out against the country’s immigration policy and deportations don’t love America and are instead on the side of terrorists.

He then implied that by speaking out, critics of the deportations without due process are technically “aiding an abetting criminals and terrorists,” which is a federal crime. Trump also said he is looking into sending U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador.

Do you see why I’m concerned now?

The Trump administration already admitted it made a mistake when deporting Garcia to El Salvador (a 2019 court ruling stated he was not allowed to be deported there because of threats to his life). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 on April 11 that Trump’s administration must facilitate the release of Garcia from the El Salvadoran prison, confirming a lower court’s ruling.

In our current political climate, do you understand how crazy and unconstitutional something has to be for our fractured U.S. Supreme Court to agree 9-0 on anything?

Again, don’t be distracted by the side issues. While Garcia has no official criminal record in the United States, the Trump administration has continued to smear his reputation to try to justify it’s position.

But Garcia could be the worst person in the world and that’s not what matters. Protecting due process is what matters. If we fail to do that, the rights of everyone — U.S. citizens included — will be at risk. We’ve seen what happens when governments are allowed to make people “disappear” without a day in court.

The Trump administration has tried to utilize the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the lack of due process. Do you want to know the last time the AEA was invoked by the U.S. government? It was to justify placing Japanese-American citizens in internment camps during World War II. That’s not exactly a precedent to be proud of.

And never forget, the Auschwicz concentration camp was not in Germany when fascists controlled Europe. They didn’t do their dirty business in their back yard. Auschwicz is in Poland.