What Rights Do Migrants Have?

This week, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to deport planeloads of Venezuelan migrants. Trump called the ruling a victory, but it came with a catch: The administration’s rationale can still be challenged, and it must ensure that would-be deportees have their day in court. “All nine members of the court agree that judicial review is available,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his concurrence.

Of all Trump’s actions so far, few have alarmed democracy scholars more than his mass deportations of migrants without a hearing. Why? Experts see a precedent that could undermine the liberties of all Americans.

Your right to due process — your day in court — underpins all of your other rights. If a prosecutor wants to deny you freedom and lock you up, she has to make her case. If a police officer illegally violates your privacy and searches your house to try to prove a crime, a trial can verify if he gathered the evidence legitimately. If Congress passes a law that lets officials arrest you for your political speech or religious beliefs, a court challenge can get the statute overturned.

It turns out that some of the Venezuelan migrants who were packed into planes and shipped to a prison in El Salvador may not be the gang members who officials say they are. That fact could have come out in hearings. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain why our constitutional system depends on due process — and what might happen without it.

Trump and his allies argue that his deportations last month targeted criminal migrants — specifically, Venezuelans who were not citizens and were part of a gang, Tren de Aragua. But his administration never had to prove those claims in court. A judge never checked the government’s work.