On Friday, April 25, a quiet but disturbing event occurred that should have triggered a national outcry regarding due process (and general decency): three children, all U.S. citizens, were deported to Honduras alongside their mothers — one of them a four-year-old battling Stage 4 cancer who was reportedly sent without medication.
While the Trump Administration makes the case that the mothers were here illegally and chose to have their children deported with them, the case adds to the body of evidence showing the Trump Administration’s disregard for due process – such as the recent cases involving Venezuelan immigrants, El Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and pro-Palestine college students.
Now, in a brand new interview, Trump has said that he “doesn’t know” if, as president, he has a duty to uphold the Constitution and support due process for U.S. citizens and noncitizens.
Chapters
- Due process is in constitutional crisis
- What is due process?
- But they were “illegal,” right?
- Emergency powers are a slippery slope
- Ask Yourself: What if it were you?
- Due process is the price of freedom
- The cost of forsaking due process
- Due process must be protected
Due process is in constitutional crisis
To be clear, the U.S. Constitution enshrines certain inalienable rights: due process, equal protection under the law, and birthright citizenship among them. These are not optional. They are not suggestions. They are the legal backbone of what it means to be a citizen of this country.
And yet, these inalienable rights are increasingly being ignored by the Trump Administration. Instead of being granted due process, more and more cases are cropping up where people have been denied due process – including American citizens. This isn’t just a bureaucratic failure. It’s a blatant violation of constitutional law.
What is due process?
Due process is the constitutional guarantee that the government must respect a person’s inalienable rights. It means that before someone can be punished, detained, deported, or deprived of liberty or property, they are entitled to fair procedures — a hearing, access to evidence, legal representation, and a chance to defend themselves in court. It’s enshrined in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and is a foundational principle of American law.
But here’s the crucial thing: due process doesn’t exist just to protect the guilty or the undocumented. It exists to protect everyone — because without it, you are whatever the nearest government official or law enforcement officer says you are.
Without due process, citizenship status is no longer determined by documents, testimony, or judicial review — it’s determined on the spot by someone with a badge and unchecked power. Your rights no longer hinge on the law; they hinge on whether an agent believes you’re entitled to them.
That’s why due process cannot be selectively applied. If we decide one person doesn’t deserve it — whether because they’re undocumented, critical of the government, or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time — we open the door for it to be taken from anyone. The legal infrastructure doesn’t know how to discriminate between “good people” and “bad people.” It only knows whether it’s being followed or ignored.
Once we allow the government to sidestep due process for one group, the precedent is set. And eventually, that exception swallows the rule — putting all of us at risk of being silenced, punished, or disappeared without ever getting our day in court.
But they were “illegal,” right?
This is where many people get it dangerously wrong.
Some would argue that these actions are legal under wartime or emergency provisions — citing obscure laws that allow the president to remove citizens of “hostile nations” during wartime. But that glosses over the actual issue: That a president of the United States is using decades old, rarely invoked emergency powers to separate families, deport political activists, or for seemingly no reason at all.
This logic is disturbingly familiar: “It’s the law.” “It’s within the president’s power to do that.” “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
But history shows us how often legality and morality diverge. In Nazi Germany, it was “legal” to arrest those hiding Jewish families. In apartheid South Africa, it was “legal” to segregate by race. In the Jim Crow South, it was “legal” to deny Black Americans their most basic rights.
Legality is not morality. And ignoring that distinction is how fascism gains ground.
Trump’s emergency powers are a slippery slope
Supporters of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns often argue that what’s happening is simply a matter of enforcing the law. They cite technicalities, such as age thresholds or nationality clauses under obscure immigration statutes, to justify bypassing standard judicial procedures. They claim this is still “due process” — just a different version of it. But these legal contortions are designed to do one thing: excuse the government from having to prove its case.
The moment we allow emergency powers or selective statutes to override the standard due process protections — especially without oversight — we have dismantled the legal firewall that protects all of us. You can say today that it only applies to immigrants, or to “people from hostile nations,” or “people who don’t belong here.” But once that mechanism is normalized, it can be applied to anyone: protestors, journalists, political opponents — even you.
Emergency powers are not a “temporary” fix. They are a test balloon. If the public doesn’t fight back, they become precedent.
Ask Yourself: What if it were you?
If you were wrongly accused of a crime, denied a hearing, and forced into detention without ever seeing a judge — would you consider that justice?
What if you were misidentified by an agent, stripped of your documents, and accused of being in the country illegally — and no one allowed you the chance to prove otherwise? That’s what happens when due process is eroded. You are no longer a citizen in the eyes of the law. You are simply whatever the nearest badge says you are.
Due process isn’t a privilege reserved for the innocent, the documented, or the favored. It’s the mechanism by which we determine who is guilty, who is innocent, who is a citizen, and who is not. Without it, there is no distinction — only the word of authority. And thus, only authoritarianism thrives in the vacuum of due process.
Due process is the price of freedom
One of the most common defenses for eroding due process is economic: “It costs too much.” Or “It takes too long.” But here’s the truth: Freedom isn’t free. It never has been.
We fund court systems, public defenders, appeals processes, and legal protections not because they are cheap or efficient — but because they are necessary. We do not toss out trials for murder suspects because it’s faster to skip them. We don’t revoke driver’s licenses en masse because it’s easier than evaluating infractions.
We should not deny anyone the chance to have their case heard simply because it’s inconvenient, costly, or unpopular.
Due process is not a luxury. It is the cost of freedom. Due process is the method by which we determine guilt, innocence, legal status, or threat level. If we cede that to the whims of authority figures, we no longer live under rule of law — we live under decree. And We no longer have freedom — we have chains upon us.
The cost of forsaking due process is immeasurable
If you think the cost of due process is high, the cost of forsaking it is even higher. History shows us time and time again that the erosion of rights never stops with non-citizens or criminals. Instead the definition of “citizen” is narrowed and the definition of “criminal” is expanded. Once due process is gone, all our rights go with it — and nothing can stop the government from deciding you are next.
Yes, protecting freedom costs money. It costs time. It requires patience, empathy, and systems that don’t always move as fast as we’d like. But the alternative — a country where one man or one agency decides who is guilty, who is exiled, and who disappears — is infinitely more costly.
Because once you forfeit due process for one person, you’ve forfeited it for everyone.
Due process must be protected
This is not about left or right. This is not about immigration policy. This is about the rule of law, the Constitution, and whether or not we believe in the principles that supposedly define this country.
When we justify injustice because it’s happening to someone else — or because we don’t agree with the victims — we’re not upholding the law. We’re dismantling it.
And once due process dies for them, it dies for all of us.