Leading Voices Sound Alarm, Speak Out for Constitutional Rights and Freedom for All Americans

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Washington, DC — As America’s Voice has been noting, the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda can be thought of as the “tip of the spear” of their broader assault on core democratic pillars and American citizens’ rights. The past few days have detailed and underscored some of these worries – and the important voices that are pushing back and highlighting the stakes.

Two recent examples that highlight the worries:

• This Sunday is not only Easter and the final day of Passover, but also the deadline for the Trump administration’s promised recommendations on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and the National Emergencies Act of 1976, which could dramatically expand the power of the state to go after political opponents and subvert Americans’ rights, including by deploying the military in American communities.
• Trump administration counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka told Newsmax, “We have people that love America, like the president, like his cabinet, like the directors of his agencies, who want to protect Americans. And then there’s the other side that is on the side of the cartel members, on the side of the illegal aliens, on the side of the terrorists. And you have to ask yourself: Are they technically aiding and abetting them? Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute.”

Meanwhile, leading voices across the ideological spectrum are speaking out, sounding the alarm of the implications of this administration’s actions for all Americans and standing up for a different vision. Voices include:

Reagan appointee and 4th Circuit Court Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who yesterday delivered a scathing rebuke to the Trump administration’s refusal to abide by court rulings, issuing an opinion that captured the dangerous implications for all Americans of this administration’s recent actions and noting they are:

“[A]sserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order … Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear … If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home? … And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies?”

Centrist columnist Jonathan Chait in his latest column for The Atlantic, who wrote:

“Trump has opened up a trapdoor beneath the American legal system. This trapdoor is wide enough to swallow the entire Constitution. So long as he can find at least one foreign strongman to cooperate, Trump can, if he wishes, imprison any dissident, judge, journalist, member of Congress, or candidate for office. If this sounds hyperbolic, bear in mind that Trump has expressed his desire to do these things.

… Trump’s showdown with the Supreme Court over the Abrego Garcia case has surfaced two ideas in particular that have been gestating for years on the right. One is the use of deportation authority not only to enforce immigration law but to intimidate Trump’s political critics. Another is to defy court orders.

…Why has the administration risked the brinkmanship of defying a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in order to sustain its policy of disappearing people without due process, when it has so many other available tools to handle border enforcement? Possibly it is just extremely stubborn. But there is also considerable evidence that the administration wants to preserve this constitutional loophole in order to use it more broadly to intimidate opponents.”

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Steele, who wrote for MSNBC:

“[L]et’s cut through the lies and distortions of constitutional rights by this administration and confront the moment our country is facing: The executive branch is defending the deportation of a legal resident of the United States and defying court orders to bring him back. And it is now doubling down on that defiance while trying to distract from the hard and fast constitutional principles at stake. Trump’s officials show no signs of good-faith cooperation with the rulings requiring them to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.

Normality is dictated by what a society is willing to accept. Are the American people prepared to demand accountability from this administration and pressure their elected officials to echo those calls?

…Soon, what was once unthinkable will be the new “normal,” paving the way for even more blatantly illegal actions and more destruction of this country’s foundational principles. It has to stop here. We have to stop it.”

And America’s Voice legal advisor and leading immigration attorney David Leopold, who wrote in his recent Washington Post op-ed, “Trump’s immigrant purge is part of a larger agenda”:

“[D]ue process matters as a cornerstone of fairness and justice and is not a mere legal technicality. It mandates that no individual, including noncitizens in the United States, be deprived of life, liberty or property without a fair and just process. It is enshrined in the Constitution as a safeguard against arbitrary executive power

… The Trump administration has used its first few months to target the due process rights of immigrants. If left unchecked, its efforts will threaten the broader rights and liberties of us all.”