STEPHEN MILLER’S UGLY IGNORANCE
Dr. Common Good
In a CNN interview on Monday March 17, Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller, an anti-immigrant rant personified, claimed that Trump’s recent deportation of Venezuelan immigrants using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act was not subject to judicial review. That law has only been used three times in the history of the U.S., and only in wartime. Over the weekend, U.S. District Court judge James Boasberg granted a temporary injunction against these deportations using that act, as it was only intended for wartime use and would open the door for detention and deportation of illegal or even legal immigrants without due process, a basic right. Trump ignored that injunction and deported the immigrants anyway. Miller fumed and flatly stated that the courts have no right to question or block acts that are within “executive authority.”
That is a five-alarm statement, and a blatant fallacy.
Basic constitutional law, and a foundational principle maintaining the separation of powers that was established in 1803 in the landmark Marbury vs. Madison Supreme Court decision, holds that federal courts indeed have the power to examine the constitutionality of legislative and executive actions. That is the principle of judicial review. It exists to guard against executive or legislative actions that undermine individual rights and democratic principles. Again, this is basic American government.
So, are Stephen Miller and Trump rejecting that constitutional principle? Or are they just ignorant of essential American history and the nature of American government? Or do they simply not care, because they are bent on implementing an authoritarian version of executive power that is unprecedented in American history and which challenges the very nature of our system of government? Dr. Common Good argues that all three of the above are true.
On top of that, equating the presence of gangs in the U.S. to an invasion, an act of war, is ridiculous, a “trumped up” justification — to use a phrase, and a pun that has taken on new meaning since Trump became president the first time. Who is the “country” or armed power that is invading? A brief look at MS-13, one of the gangs that has been included within the “invasion” rhetoric, tells a very different story. MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles (that’s right, here in the U.S.) for protection by Salvadorans fleeing the Central American civil wars in the 1980s — wars in which the U.S. was significantly involved. The gang was later exported back to El Salvador via deportations that resulted from changes in immigration policy, becoming established and growing amidst urban poverty in that country, and simultaneously expanding in the U.S. So, regardless of their criminality, MS-13 is domestic gang, not an invading force. Tren de Aragua, often mentioned in the news as a focus for deportations, is a gang that emerged in Venezuelan prisons in the early 2020s, and then began to expand into the U.S., and to other countries, as a result of the Venezuelan refugee crisis and migration. Again, criminal they may be, but they are not an invading force. This is the United States of America, still governed by basic constitutional principles.
Clearly, none of these facts matter to the Trump clique of authoritarians. Following a pattern common to dictators, they are using crises of various kinds to justify decimation of our current system of government and the rights that go with it.
As I have said multiple times, continuation of the American project demands that we collectively put a stop to this travesty.