Yesterday MSNBC’s super-annuated Andrea Mitchell referred to Donald Trump as “The President,” and none of her four smart panelists bothered to correct her. This was after Trump’s one-hour free-association (I’m sorry, “weave”) press conference, which apparently all channels will broadcast in their entirety now. I believe we have elected Fidel Castro, but one owned by billionaires. Of course he’s still President-Elect but that’s a distinction without a difference – we are already living in the Second Trump Presidency.
Because, check it out, ALSO yesterday, the brand-new 119th Congress, with its one-member Republican majority, chose, as its first act, to grease the skids for Trump’s promised mass deportations with the unconstitutional Laken Riley Act, every Republican voting yes, and scandalously, 48 Democrats joining them.
“Laken Riley” – why does that ring a bell, why does it sound so memorable? Are Laken and Riley two anti-immigrant Republican Congressmen who wrote the thing? NO! Laken Riley was a young lady killed by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, one who’d previously been arrested but not convicted for shoplifting. So this became a cause-célèbre for anti-immigrants throughout the campaign, as though immigrants accused of shoplifting and then later murdering someone is a “THING.”
And so, the Laken Riley Act addresses this urgent matter by requiring ICE to detain, for deportation, any undocumented immigrant who is CHARGED with shoplifting, theft, burglary or larceny, whether they are convicted or not.
Why do I call this “Unconstitutional?”
And am I right?
The provisions in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights apply to all “persons in the United States,” not just to citizens, and that includes the right to a fair trial and all that. America was built on the maxim “innocent until proven guilty,” even if that principle is “honored in the breach” daily.
Just think how easy it’ll be now to make Trump’s deportations into MASS deportations, simply by CHARGING lotsa people with stuff, and not having to prove it. Maybe they can deport a bunch of Ohio Haitians by charging them with stealing and eating people’s dogs and cats – hey the “President” and “Vice President” say they did it!
This should go over real well in our own County, with our already deportation-happy Sheriff Don Barnes (who I still don’t understand why the supposedly pro-immigrant Lou Correa and Tom Daly endorsed him.) But the real pisser is this:
Democrats Obey in Advance
Republicans coulda passed this anti-American bill on their own, just barely, but like I said 48 Democrats joined them. Were they sensitive, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, to a “tipping point in American culture,” to which they felt compelled to bow? Or just scared of being tarred by their racist 2026 Republican challenger with the sin of having “voted against Laken Riley?” The Times quickly created a graphic showing the Democrat yes votes to be overwhelmingly from tightly-fought districts:
Here in the OC, it was Derek Tran, Dave Min, and Mike Levin, whom we all worked so hard to elect / re-elect, who voted with the Republicans. The closest races in the County, except, come on, Mike’s wasn’t really THAT close. [I’ll update this story tomorrow when I have time to find out the reasons these three politicians give for their vote.]
You’d think Derek and Dave would both know better, not only being the children of immigrants, but also as LAWYERS. Especially Derek, who has done defense work, and should cherish due process. Especially Derek, who was attacked nonstop by the Steels for having defended (at least) one guy ACCUSED of sexual assault – obviously not convicted or the Steels woulda said that. Does he really believe an immigrant ACCUSED of shoplifting and not even convicted should be ripped from their family, home and livelihood? That doesn’t sound like the Derek I thought I knew.
Maybe it’s smart, maybe it’s prudent, for Democrats like Derek and Dave who barely won purple districts to look “tough” on immigration right now. I’m sure some Democrat Bigwigs told them that. But I wouldn’t think immigrant’s rights groups like CHISPA and VietRise, who worked so hard to get Derek elected, without whom he probably WOULDN’T have got elected, are very happy about this vote or will feel like helping him again.
A Bigger Problem than Trump
Keep having to remind myself, as probably you do, for ten years now, that, as tempting a target that giant orange mug is, Trump is ONLY A SYMPTOM, and the real problem is half of America. Half of America WANTS all this. 57% of Americans said they wanted mass deportations, and we tried to tell ourselves, “Oh wait till they realize that includes their Mexican friends next door,” but that was stupid, of course they know that. And then they elected Trump again, case closed.
When an angry dark terrorist killed a buncha folks in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, Republicans quickly used that as another justification for Trump’s immigration crackdown. Smart liberal people scoffed, the guy wasn’t even an immigrant, he was from Texas and a veteran. Smart liberal people were missing the point. It’s not really about immigration, or law and order – it’s about getting rid of America’s dark people. Immigration is just the acceptable shorthand.
I keep talking about the last throes of American white supremacism, but these “last throes” are sure taking a long time and getting bigger and bigger.
None of them are John Adams.
https://www.samsonhistorical.com/blogs/reliving-history/john-adams-defense#:~:text=The%20Importance%20of%20the%20Dec,months%20in%20the%20American%20colonies.
The DPOC was so effective a Republican presidential candidate won the general election in Orange Counti for the first time since 2012. Regression.
1. I was kind of thinking of Adams too, and how he made sure the British Boston Massacre shooters got due process, pissing off his fellow revolutionaries.
2. Actually Kamala did win OC, but it was close.
Forgive me. I stand corrected re Trump. Nice catch taking these jokers to task though. I tip my hat.
Hi,
I have to disagree with the notion that the bill is unconstitutional. Deportation and immigration enforcement is not a judicial proceeding, so it’s not a question of due process. By our current laws, if someone is here and doesn’t have a visa, residency, or pending asylum claim, they’re subject to deportation. There’s no trial or hearing required to figure that out.
I don’t like the bill, and mass deportation is obviously going to be a shitshow, but liberals need to stop insisting it’s wrong or racist that we give people who are here illegally less rights and privileges than citizens or people who came here after enduring the process of legal immigration.
Enforcing our broken immigration laws like this will be heartless and cause a ton of economic problems, but it will not destroy America. I’d love to see fellow liberals get as passionate about how unbridled capitalism and Republican corruption can and is actively destroying America as they do about the losing identity politics of protecting illegal immigrants.
Good comment, with which I will disagree in part — but it’s so nice to be able to have this sort of discussion in a forum like this!
I think that you’re right that it’s not as simple as presented here, but the notion that due process only matters in judicial proceedings is incorrect. That is literally why we have a category of people called “Administrative Law Judges,” who try to ensure due process in public decisions involving individuals in various situations — including Immigration Courts.
Whether something is racist is immaterial to this bill. If we judge by motivations of proponents, it probably is, but you’re right that that doesn’t make it “wrong.” It may still be potentially (and often pretty obviously) unkind, counterproductive, selfish, and antithetical to the “greatness” of our country — but that doesn’t make it “wrong” in any objective sense.
Yes, one can easily make a moral case that we’re entitled to give more benefits to those who comply with our society’s rules. But let’s be real: if you’ve read immigration rules and priced immigration lawyers, that means that we’re saying that largely only people of a high social class (or special education, talent, etc. — like Melania) — can get here on a legal permanent visa. (I forget how much I had to have in hand to be able to qualify my wife to get her green card, even after we were married, but it was a whole lot. I didn’t have to spend it, but I had to have enough of a reserve to ensure that she would not become a public charge for a decade or so.)
I have more to say, but I’m up at this hour to get some work product to the East Coast, so that’s all I have time for at the moment.
Umm republicans never implemented or enforced their beloved Immigration Reform Act of 1986. Let’s start their Michael. Kind of like when Bush 2 created homeland security and didn’t enforce FARA.
And, progressives may have been right about DUI Dave the yellow bellied douchebag after all. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrat-dave-min-federalist-society-joanna-weiss_n_64c18467e4b0dcb4cabb2fca/amp
Gotta be honest I don’t know what point you’re trying to make here.
I am demurring to your first paragraph to give you a better opportunity to explain it, because right now it looks a bit like you’re supporting Farrah, rather than lamenting (or substitute your own gerund here) the impotence of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. (As if you really expected something else from Bush 43.)
I suspect that if Joanna Weiss had beaten Baugh she’d have likely voted the same way. This was arguably not the hill to die on, given that it would pass anyway without any progressive support.
The IRCA of 1986 was sold as a crackdown on hiring undocumented workers but was really amnesty for 2.9 million illegal immigrants who entered before 1982. It was a failure. The teeth of the bill was not part and parcel of it when it passed. Republicans were just pandering for votes from newly made citizens pretending to protect business interests . Remember Bush 41 talking about his “little brown ones”.
Now they are pandering to the nativists.
https://www.npr.org/2010/07/04/128303672/a-reagan-legacy-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants
Do you understand that Michael?? Were you even alive in 1986? Maybe your lack of life experience explains your inability to understand the point I’m was making.
My position has nothing to do with supporting Farrah. Huh? Wtf?!?!?
H. W.’s my little brown ones reprise.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-17-mn-655-story.html
With friends like this, who needs enemies? Take a breath and show some class.
Republicans passed a bill that we don’t like, that you seem to be trying to say is redundant due to pre-existing laws that just aren’t being enforced. Is that your point? What about that makes the bill unconstitutional?
I suspect I’m not as old as you. Frankly I’ll call that a win, since the generation I suspect you’re part of based on your online temper tantrum has consistently failed to either advance progressivism or at least keep the far right at bay for the last 40 years.
Republicans recent history with reforming immigration includes Amnesty and has been a failure.
You can pass whatever law you’d like but that doesn’t mean it will be enforced as contemplated if at all.
I don’t think those English soldiers were here lawfully, they got due process.
So some young whippersnapper wants me to “show some class” by not criticizing or questioning the votes of politicians I’ve supported – sounds like some “class” I will not be showing. And apparently this person’s generation is doing SO much better on advancing progressive goals than mine has in the last 40 years – also up for debate. (I’ll have this upstart know that there are plenty of young people upset about this vote, in fact I heard about it from them first.)[I thought that “anonymous” comment was directed at me and my article, but I’ve been told it was directed at Eric. To continue…]
Apparently it’s now a matter of opinion whether the DUE PROCESS guaranteed by the Constitution to “persons” (not citizens) in the United States applies to folks whose immigration papers are out of order or who’ve overstayed their visas? I’ll have Chevalier know that my concern for due process has nothing to do with “identity politics.”
I haven’t got in the mood to call Derek yet about this, or the offices of Dave & Mike. (Anyone else wanna?)
But one distressing aspect of this that I didn’t emphasize enough is the decades-long pattern of Democrat insiders & consultants responding to losses by becoming MORE LIKE REPUBLICANS, becoming Republican-lite, instead of making it clear to the public how we’re different from and better than Republicans. Here’s a sign of that happening again, and I think Derek and Dave were following those people’s advice rather than their own consciences. And so unnecessary here, where Trump did not beat Kamala, and a huge 2026 Blue Reaction should be reasonably expected!
Cowards don’t deserve class. They deserve to be taken to task.
So your response when a member of your own coalition offers a dissenting view is to froth at the mouth, attack them and call them a coward? Yeah, no wonder we’ve spent the last 40 years losing to liars and crooks. Keep on keeping on, Eric. Guess we’ll just have to wait you out.
*I* didn’t say “coward,” but Eric may have been reacting to the person posting anonymously. Which we do allow.
Meanwhile when I think of the erosion of rights like due process, I keep thinking “First they came for the ‘mojados’ and I said nothing…”
I don’t think that’s identity politics.
I think part of the problem here is the issue has become so hyperpolarized that when liberals hear “hey why exactly are we just cool with the status quo being that people who break the law to come here get to jump ahead of everyone trying to do it the right way?” they automatically assume it’s part of a racist agenda because for decades that was basically the case.
However, the reality is even a country as large as the United States does not have the capacity to take on unlimited immigration, therefore it must unfortunately draw a line somewhere and keep out perfectly good human beings who would make fantastic additions to the fabric of our country (Like literally every other country on the planet with the capacity to enforce its own borders, including our more liberal European brethren).
If we want more immigrants, we should exert the political pressure required to allow more of them here legally. When there’s not the political will to change that via Congress, then just deciding that the laws are optional because we liberals don’t like them is an abdication of our responsibility as citizens. More practically, continuing to message to aspiring migrants that legal immigration is a dead end and the most effective way to become American is through illegal means is just begging for more humanitarian crises and human trafficking as more and more highly vulnerable attempt to come here through highly dangerous means.
I can understand your concerns about due process to the extent that undocumented immigrants who are eligible to be here under some sort of program may just be Shanghai’d out of here by ICE. Obviously that would be terrible. But the reality is that the laws of immigration and border enforcement in this country and nearly all others are pretty clear that if you’re here illegally, the country has every right to deport you. How it does that matters a lot, but whether it does is entirely at the discretion of its people.
He was referring to me I think. But no you come across reasonable and grounded.
Bingo. He was indeed. You were not.
[Deleted as part of punishment for other crimes against blogdom.]
ACLU and immigration attorneys voice concern.
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-responds-to-house-passage-of-h-r-29-the-laken-riley-act
https://www.latintimes.com/immigration-lawyers-raise-concerns-about-laken-riley-act-could-disproportionately-affect-571694
Azerbaijani foreign agent at odds with fellow Texas Democrats over bill.
https://riograndeguardian.com/cuellar-gonzalez-at-odds-with-fellow-texas-congressional-democrats-over-laken-riley-act/
The world is on fire and you’re whining about policy Go fuck yourselves Zero exposure except for your bullshit addresses Shane on you