In an NBC News interview as reported in the Wall Street Journal (a well known bastion of wild-eyed, left-wing liberalism), President Trump was asked if noncitizens are entitled to due process under the Fifth Amendment. He responded that he was unsure and would defer to his lawyers.

The Prevaricator of the United States has apparently forgotten that on January 20, only a little over three months ago, upholding the Constitution was PRECISELY what he promised 330 million people he would do.

The Constitution consistently uses the word "person" and never "citizen" to identify those inhabitants of the nation who are to be ruled by law and not subjected to arbitrary and capricious treatment. The point of this dictionary choice was to assure that the government or its agents could not choose whom to prosecute for spurious reasons.

The text of the Fifth Amendment (partial, Due Process Clause) reads as follows:
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, "
and concludes that in addition no person shall be
"... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

The guarantee of due process for all PERSONS requires the government to respect all rights, guarantees, and protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution and all applicable statutes BEFORE the government can deprive any PERSON of life, liberty, or property. This guarantee is being violated daily by the current administration, and there can be little doubt that innocent persons will be swept up in the fervor.

Due process essentially guarantees that a party will receive a fundamentally fair, orderly, and just judicial proceeding . While the Fifth Amendment only applies to the federal government, the identical text in the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly applies this due process requirement to the states as well.

One need not be a lawyer to understand any of this, and the idea that having good lawyers like those whom Trump regularly praises (e.g., Apr 18, 2019 — "I've had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn.") might enable one to skirt the law betrays the intent of a criminal mind.

The arrest and deportation of potentially hundreds of thousands of persons not only without trial but without due process of any kind is more akin to totalitarian regimes than to what Americans have experienced for 250 years — with exceptions, of course, mostly in the case of ethnic minorities. No one is arguing that actual criminals have a right to remain, but the use of dragnets has been anathema in US legal practice for generations.

He is displaying traits that mark one as an ignoramus, a liar, an illiterate or a fool, or perhaps — as ever more writers are suggesting — he is drifting into a senility in which his worst traits predominate.

—Ed.

Read more in the Wall Street Journal