Immigrant “Invasion” Lie is False Justification Used to Justify Broader Assault on Core Constitutional Pillars

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Washington, DC — America’s Voice has consistently highlighted the larger dangers of President Trump’s lies about immigrants and assessed that immigration is the “tip of the spear” for this administration’s broader assault on core democratic pillars. Recent developments highlight these connections and underscore the larger stakes. Of note:

• President Trump’s frequently repeated claims that our nation is under ‘invasion” from immigrants is not only dangerous rhetoric that has inspired unhinged individuals like the El Paso shooter, but also is an assertion that serves as the legal justification for this administration’s invocation of the “Alien Enemies Act of 1798.”
• That archaic wartime law, meanwhile, has been used to deport Venezuelans to the infamous El Salvador mega-prison without due process, leading to numerous instances of mistaken deportations and triggering a constitutional crisis around issues such as the separation of powers (and one that the Trump administration seems eager to provoke, judging by recent comments reaffirming their intention to ignore the Supreme Court and ignore due process).

Yet fresh reporting makes clear that it’s all built on a lie, with the Trump administration’s own intelligence agencies directly contradicting the assertion that Venezuelan migrants are “invading” the United States. As the New York Times reports:

“A newly declassified memo released on Monday confirms that U.S. intelligence agencies rejected a key claim President Trump put forth to justify invoking a wartime statute to summarily deport Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador … The memo’s release further undercuts the Trump administration’s rationale for using the Alien Enemies Act.”

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“We have said it all along and now it is confirmed by our nation’s own intelligence services, that the ‘invasion’ is a fabricated lie at the heart of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. This fabrication is the justification to suspend due process, undermine the Constitution and endanger the rights of every American. This is dangerous and irresponsible and the tip of the spear in their larger assault on democratic principles, our constitutional separation of powers, and basic rights and protections that all Americans rely on.”

Alongside the reminders of the “invasion” lie, recent days have underscored how this administration is intent to continue to ignore clear constitutional language and court rulings – raising the stakes for our democracy.

In ‘Shocking’: Experts question Trump claiming ‘I don’t know’ about upholding Constitution,” ABC News highlights President Trump’s interview revelation that he doesn’t know if he will uphold the Constitution and quotes America’s Voice legal advisor and leading immigration attorney David Leopold, who said:

“It is shocking that a sitting president would treat the Constitution as if it’s an inconvenience … We can’t just assume that the government is judge, jury and executioner … That’s not what this country was founded on. That’s what an authoritarian country is. We are not an authoritarian country. We are a constitutional republic.”

Also read the analysis in The New York Times, “For Trump, the Constitution Is a Hindrance as He Pushes for Deportations,” which notes:

…Mr. Trump and his top aides show no signs of backing down from this fight. ‘The right of ‘due process’ is to protect citizens from their government, not to protect foreign trespassers from removal,’ Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, posted Monday on social media. ‘Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.’”

In response to Miller’s assertion, Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck noted: “Even *if* you accept Stephen Miller’s (textually, historically, and morally indefensible) claim that undocumented immigrants are not entitled to due process, you’d *still* need due process to ensure that the individuals at issue are, in fact, undocumented. His argument fails even on its own terms.”

And as David Leopold 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.”