ICE screw-ups corrode the public’s trust

I’ve waited more than two decades for a majority of the American people to join me in opposing illegal immigration, and now that they have, and very strongly, ICE is screwing it up.

Not all of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, of course, but through too many blunders.

First and foremost, due process.

People living in the U.S. — citizens and noncitizens, innocent and guilty — are protected by the Constitution, and are entitled to due process.  With rare exception,  that  means they get a trial or a hearing before they are punished, or deported.

In a 1993 case, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “it is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.”

That means that some 250 suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Agagua terror gang were denied their rights when deported to El Salvador. President Donald J. Trump circumvented the 5th Amendment by invoking the 18th Century Alien Enemies Act, previously used only three times, and each time when the U.S. was at war. 

The courts will decide if Trump acted Constitutionally, while his supporters accused his critics of “siding with the criminals.”

The deportation critics were not “siding with the criminals,” as some on the Right said. They wanted proof that the incarcerated men were actually criminals, and information is arising claiming that at least some of them were not gang members. If true, they are wrongfully jailed.

A former Columbia student pro-Hamas agitator was arrested and jailed on vague charges. A Lebanese professor at Brown University was deported on suspicion of siding with terrorists despite a judge’s order that she not be deported without a hearing.

In the Philadelphia area, a Cherry Hill Turkish couple who had overstayed their visa was arrested and jailed. The Inquirer has done several sympathetic stories on the family, neighbors have raised more than $325,000 to support their legal fight to stay here.

TV stations also provided sympathetic coverage.

This case is a loser for the government. Sympathy will prevail over law in the court of public opinion. As a man with a knack for putting his finger on the pulse, Trump ought to dramatically grant them asylum status, and get out from under the mess.

Cases like this, and there are others, such as U.S. citizens being detained or deported by ICE, hurt the cause. Every time ICE screws the pooch, more Americans turn against Trump’s deportation policy.

When ICE “border czar” Tom Homan in a careless statement says, “I don’t care what the judges think,” he turns more Americans against him.

We are supposed to be the good guys, the guys upholding the law. 

You have a problem with liberal judges? The other side has a problem with conservative judges. 

You don’t like their decisions? Appeal them. Take it to the Supreme Court. But don’t ignore it court orders. That’s the road to anarchy and autocracy. (We already have oligarchy, say the Dems.)

In his calculated, and lighting moves to reshape American policy and American government, Trump (executive branch), has run up against judges (judicial branch), designed by the Founding Fathers to be a check on the power of the President and Congress (legislative branch). The Republican-led congress has been as useful as a bicycle rack on a cow.

As Trump rolls a bowling ball at the Bill of Rights, he has run into a dozen courts that acted to permanently stop, or temporarily pause, his actions. This is by check and balance design, and much of this will wind up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which Trump thinks will backstop him.

I don’t. The majority are strict constructionists, who will go with the language, the actual text of the Constitution, not what Trump wants the text to say.

The conservatives on the court are the people of the book.

When the court rules, Trump must obey the law. That is the side the majority is on — the law.

That is why Americans overwhelmingly oppose Sanctuary Cities, because they thwart immigration law.

Americans tend to be decent and law-abiding.

ICE must be the same. 

When ICE acts outside the law, it destroys the peoples’ trust.