Trump Is Trashing The Constitution With His Deportations

 

Donald Trump has been playing fast and loose with his deportations. He has deported 261 people he claimed were members of a Venezuelan gang called Teen de Aragua. They weren't sent back to their home country, but were sent to a prison in El Salvador.

Don't get me wrong. If there are undocumented members of a foreign criminal gang in the United States, I have no problem with them being deported. But I am bothered by how it was done. 

First, is there proof that they were really gang members? No proof has been offered. Trump has said they were, but after the many thousands of lies he has told I don't think we should take his word for it. Some doubt has been cast about some who were labeled as gang members and deported. One was a gay hairdresser. Does anyone really think a macho South American gang would have a gay hairdresser as a member? That's just not believable.

Second, there were not deported back to the country they came from, which has always been U.S. policy. Instead of being sent back to Venezuela, they were sent to El Salvador - a country they know nothing about.

Third, they were not just sent to El Salvador, but to a prison in El Salvador. When did the U.S. start putting people in prison without charges and a conviction at a trial?  Maybe some (or nearly all) of them were gang members who were breaking one or more laws. If so, they should have been charged with a crime, put on trial, and convicted after proof was offered. 

But most important, the arrest and deportation of these individuals violated the U.S. Constitution. You may be thinking that foreign gang members don't have the same rights as a citizen. But that is wrong.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees certain right to people - not citizens. Those rights, including due process rights, are guaranteed to everyone that is inside the borders of the United States - even undocumented immigrants who belong to a criminal gang. They should not have been deported without a due process hearing before an immigration judge or imprisoned without a due process trial before a state or federal judge.

It may be easy to violate the constitutional rights of these foreign gang members, because they are not popular. But it shouldn't be. Constitutional rights don't just apply to the people we (or the government) likes. It applies to everyone! 

If the rights of unpopular people can be violated with impunity, it just makes it easier for the authorities to violate the rights of others - maybe even citizens they don't like. Protecting the rights of "bad people" protects the rights of everyone else.

It's sad and scary that Trump and his cronies don't understand that.