A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is working hard to implement a campaign promise for mass deportations.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Officials are moving quickly to arrest, detain and remove people from the country. But critics say such fast action skirts due process that all people in the U.S. should receive.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's immigration policy reporter, Ximena Bustillo, joins us now to unpack all of this. So Ximena, has the administration addressed what due process means for their mass deportation goals?
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Yes. Earlier this week, Trump said that it wasn't possible for all the people he wants to remove to get a trial.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I hope we get cooperation from the courts because, you know, we have thousands of people that are ready to go out. And you can't have a trial for all of these people.
BUSTILLO: Vice President JD Vance went as far as to call it a, quote, "fake legal process" on social media. And in another post, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has said, quote, "the judicial process is for Americans. Immediate deportation is for illegal aliens." But critics broadly point to the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That states that no person can, quote, "be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." The administration seems to be banking on Americans believing that noncitizens don't get the same due process as citizens. That's according to Muzaffar Chishti from the Migration Policy Institute.
MUZAFFAR CHISHTI: That may be politically a good slogan. Unfortunately, the Constitution does not make any distinction between citizens and noncitizens for the application or the protections of due process and judicial review.
BUSTILLO: The ultimate concern, he says, is that if you strip due process for one group, that's a slippery slope for others.
MARTÍNEZ: So let's get into that because let's assume that some people are good with the argument that due process rights are not owed to everyone. What's the argument, then, about why that's not just incorrect - that it is a slippery slope for absolutely everyone?
BUSTILLO: You know, put simply, because mistakes are made. It's central to the Constitution that if the government makes any accusation, people accused have a chance to respond. Immigration courts were designed specifically as a neutral space where both the government and immigrants could both make their cases. Not every person gets the same rights, though. It's a spectrum of rights. You know, law experts tell me it depends on how long you've been in the country and other factors. I spoke with Ashley Tabaddor. She's a former immigration judge, and she said the government can't just act on the basis of allegations.
ASHLEY TABADDOR: Government is not immune from making errors and errors that can cost someone's life. So what is at stake is oftentimes a life-and-death situation.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, are there any examples of such errors already?
BUSTILLO: You know, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia brought the question of due process to the forefront. In 2019, an immigration judge had decided that he could not be deported to El Salvador. But last month, officials arrested him. Within days and by mistake, he was sent to a prison in El Salvador. Other lawyers fighting Trump's policies have alleged their clients didn't have deportation orders yet and were due in court, and suddenly, they ended up in other countries. And lawyers have told me that they've defended U.S. citizens or others with legal status who got arrested or detained when they shouldn't have.
But Trump administration is making other changes, too. They increased the number of people who can be removed without a court hearing, and they've terminated contracts that provide legal services to over 20,000 minors without legal status. And they fired and accepted resignations from over 100 court staff, including dozens of judges. Critics warn that erodes those due process protections America was founded on.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's immigration policy reporter, Ximena Bustillo. Thanks a lot.
BUSTILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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