by Cecillia D. Wang [Deputy Legal Director - national office - ACLU]
ABSTRACT. In 1944, Justice Jackson dissented in Korematsu, warning that the majority’s decision would “lie[] about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.” Seventy-five years later, President Donald Trump has picked up that doctrinal weapon. This Essay sets out three reforms that would prevent future abuses of this weapon by President Trump and his successors: (1) providing for meaningful review of presidential claims of “emergency” and “national interest”; (2) abolishing the punitive and militarized approaches to immigration enforcement enacted in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), and restoring basic principles of due process to the Immigration and Nationality Act; and (3) policies that recognize immigrants and refugees as fellow human beings and not as criminals.
***because of his extreme cruelty and utter disregard for laws and norms, President Trump’s immigration policies have demonstrated more clearly than ever before that when U.S. Presidents are permitted to speak in terms of “emergency” and security “threats” with plenary executive authority, they create deep and long-lasting harms to U.S. communities, due process, and the rule of law. To be clear, every one of President Trump’s immigration-related policies that has been challenged in litigation surpasses existing statutory and constitutional limits on presidential power. But to ensure that neither this President nor any future one can engage in similar abuses, Congress and the courts—and ultimately, we the people—should act.
In this Essay, I trace President Trump’s abusive deployment of “emergency” declarations in his all-out assault on immigrants and refugees and identify the roots of those abuses in longstanding immigration policies.
No comments:
Post a Comment