Democrats’ Phony Love Affair With “Due Process”

Media coverage for the last four weeks has centered on the term "due process."

Progressive lawyers, such as those from the ACLU; politicians like Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who grew up in the Clinton White House; federal judges like James Boasberg, and recently, even a majority of the Supreme Court, have been fixated on how actions by the Trump administration in evicting illegal aliens could sometimes impact due process. The argument is that unless these aliens are given their day in court, their removal could be unfair to them.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Van Hollen described his trip to El Salvador to meet deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia and again prayed at the altar of "due process."

The Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law because if we take it away from him, we jeopardize it for everybody else...I don't think it's ever wrong to protect the Constitution and protect due process rights.

Most people in the heartland are unlikely to buy into this argument. They would ask where these due process champions had been hiding in recent years.

Why did the New York judicial system repeatedly deny due process protections for President Trump when he was charged with a litany of civil and criminal violations? In the hush money case, when Trump was indicted in March 2023 and convicted in May 2024 for falsifying business records to conceal a payment to Stormy Daniels, wasn't the prosecution's novel legal theory—combining falsifying business records with the intent to violate election laws—vague and lacking clear precedent, thereby depriving Trump of fair notice of the charges? Didn't Judge Juan Merchan's rulings, including denying certain defense motions and imposing a gag order, restrict Trump's ability to mount a full defense? How could a jury pool in heavily Democratic Manhattan that was inherently biased not undermine the impartiality required for due process for any individual, far less a former President? Finally, would these charges have been brought against anyone if that person hadn't been called Trump?

When Van Hollen met deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia, he said he never ascertained if Garcia was indeed an MS-13 gang member because doing so would mean that he would be following President Trump's line of inquiry. Multiple courts had previously determined that Garcia was indeed a gang member against whom his wife had requested restraining orders because he routinely beat her. So, Garcia deserves due process, but not President Trump?

Second, most people in the heartland are unlikely to buy the liberals' message that Constitutional protections of due process should apply to all deportees. When the Constitution was drafted, our Founding Fathers didn't envision that a derelict President Biden would let 18 million plus illegals invade America. Many voters understand that for these protections to go away, the Constitution must be changed, but that would take forever. As a practical matter, the street instinct of those who have to put in a hard day of work to care for their families is: "They came in by the millions without invitation and scant regard for our laws; they need to be deported by the millions, due process be damned. If a president can let them in, a president can throw them out."

Third, ordinary voters know that the liberal lawyers' goal is to delay "due process" procedures through legal maneuvers in already backlogged courts allowing the aliens to continue staying in America. When an alien who has been admitted provisionally at the border because he sought asylum appears before a court, he does so before the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). This special court is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ). About 800 immigration judges are dispersed throughout the country to hear alien appeals.

Even if every judge hears and decides five cases a day, five days a week, for fifty weeks a year, simple arithmetic shows that it will take 18 years to clear the 18 million cases of the recent illegal arrivals. If one considers that the judges are already sitting on two million undecided cases, the new arrivals will have to wait two years before the first one is called up for review.

If a judge decides against the alien, the alien has a right to appeal the decision in front of a special body called the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The BIA doesn't allow trials, but, like federal appellate courts, it reviews cases "on paper." The BIA, located in Falls Church, Virginia, has only 20 board members, all of whom are senior immigration lawyers or former judges. If every case is appealed, it will take 720 years to adjudicate all cases, assuming the same five-cases-per-day schedule.

Meanwhile, circumstances change. While the aliens await their day in court, they are free to have children born in America. Unless the Supreme Court invalidates Birthright Citizenship, these aliens with American-born children can claim U.S. citizenship. Judges are unlikely to separate alien parents from their U.S. citizen children, allowing the aliens to stay.

The Democrats' hatred toward President Trump is so deep that they would willingly use Constitutional protections to keep all 18 million illegal aliens in America using every existing legal tactic.

To the ordinary voter, who will probably never see the insides of a courthouse, "due process" is being exploited for political gain at the expense of America.

Trump 2.0

1. California Sues Trump Over Tariffs—Katelynn Richardson, DCNF

2. Trump, Tariffs, And Tech: Gary Shapiro’s Unfiltered Take—Rob Bluey, The Daily Signal 

3. Federal Judge Permanently Enjoins Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Abortion Regulation For Catholic Business Group—Joshua Arnold, The Daily Signal 

4. Federal Spending Is Only Going Up: Trump Pushes Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget—Ryan McMaken, Mises Wire

5. Lee Zeldin Is Hovering Right Over The Target—Kevin Mooney, CFACT

6. More Signal Chat Trouble For Hegseth? Trump Shrugs It Off—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

7. State Department Divide Breaks Open Between Establishment, MAGA Loyalists Over USAID Cuts—Reagan Reese, DCNF

8. Trump Admin Shuts Down Agency That Drove Online ‘Censorship’—Hudson Crozier, DCNF

9. Trump Administration At Risk Of Being Held In Criminal Contempt Over Deportation Flights—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal

10. Trump Administration Halts New York Offshore Wind Project—Chris Wade, The Daily Signal

11. Trump Pressures Fed To Cut Rates, Says Inflation Is Over—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

12. Trump’s Insane Tariff Policy—Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., Mises Wire

13. Vice President JD Vance, Pope Francis Brush Off ‘Public Tiff,’ ‘Rift’ Media Claims At Easter Sunday Vatican Meeting—Thomas Wong, DCNF

14. Will Trump’s Tariffs Hurt GOP In Midterm Elections?—George Caldwell, The Daily Signal

15. “We’re Bringing Religion Back:” Trump At Easter Event—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

World Affairs

16. China Is Fighting For Bigger Consumer Demand—Zhang Jun, Project Syndicate

17. Communist China’s Reach Is Global And Growing—Anna Gustafson, The Daily Signal

18. China Draws A Line: Don’t Side With U.S. Or Else—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

19. Foreign Student Persecution Imperils Any American Who Advocates For Freedom—James Bovard, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

20. Van Hollen’s Office Mum On Cost To Taxpayers For El Salvador Visit—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

21. Huckabee Lands in Jerusalem, Vows to Tighten U.S.-Israel Bond—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

22. India, U.S. Close In On Landmark Trade Deal, Say Modi And Vance—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

23. New Poll: Americans Reject Deporting Foreigners For ‘Wrongthink’ On Middle East—Daniel McAdams, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

24. President Bukele: Abrego Garcia And Sen. Van Hollen Seen ‘Sipping Margaritas’ In El Salvador—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal

25. US Military Footprint In Syria Will Shrink, DOD Announces—John Oyewale, DCNF

Economy

26. Financial Repression Is Back As Euro Debasement Continues—Thorsten Polleit, Mises Wire

27. Net Zero Policymakers Remain Oblivious That Electricity Came After Oil—Ronald Stein, CFACT

Politics

28. Fact-Checking 3 Biden Claims From First Post-Presidential Speech—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

29. Texas Legislature Considering Change To Law That Could Increase Lawfare—Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal

30. Hunter Biden Whistleblower Replaced As Acting IRS Commissioner Just Days Into Job—John Oyewale, DCNF

31. Law Enforcement Rallies Around Virginia Sheriff Caught In Sting Operation After Defying Democrats—Joe Thomas, The Daily Signal

32. Nearly 400 Colleges And Universities Refuse To Close DEI Offices—S.A. McCarthy, The Daily Signal

33. Pro-Palestinian Candidate Jumps Into Michigan’s Senate Race—Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal

34. Race To Succeed McConnell In Senate Heats Up—Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal

35. SCOTUS Order Pauses Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal

General Affairs

36. Maine Gov. Janet Mills Doesn’t Know It Yet, But She’s An ‘Insurrectionist’—Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal

37. EPA Mega-Grant Has Stacey Abrams' Fingerprints All Over It—Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations

38. Do Desperate Dems Really Want To Die On Illegal Immigration Hill?—Editorial Board, Issues & Insights

39. Sanity Returns To The Appliance Aisle—Editorial Board, Issues & Insights

40. The Land Still Beckons International Students — But Only Those Who Honor Its Laws—Editorial Board, TIPP Insights

41. Dinner Turns Sour: Kristi Noem’s Purse Stolen In D.C.—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

42. First Day Of Dem Senator’s Trip To Visit Deported Illegal Migrant Ends In Failure—Jason Hopkins, DCNF

43. Here’s The ‘Green’ Fuel The Left Refuses To Celebrate This Earth Day—Andre Beliveau, The Daily Signal 

44. NPR Report Says Hegseth’s Out — White House Says ‘No Way’—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

45. RFK Jr. Slams Media For Ignoring ‘Tragedy’ Of Autism ‘Epidemic’—Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal

46. Star Academic Behind Million-Dollar Antiracism Center Races For Exit As Plagiarism Allegations Pile Up—Emily Kopp, DCNF

47. The Left Claims Increasing Crime Is All In Your Head—Tim Young, The Daily Signal

48. Tom Homan Says He Saw Something Proving Abrego Garcia Is ‘Absolutely’ MS-13—Hailey Gomez, DCNF

49. Who Could Be The Next Pope?—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights

📊 Market Snapshot

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🧠 Macro Insight

Stocks sold off sharply Monday, with the S&P 500 down over 2% and oil sliding more than 2% as global risk sentiment weakened. Bitcoin gained over 3% as the dollar dropped to a three-year low, fueling interest in alternative assets. Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year note topping 4.40%, while gold rallied to record highs.

Tuesday will focus on the Treasury’s 2-year note auction and early earnings from key financial and industrial names.

📅 Key Events Today

• 10:00 AM ET – Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (April)
  Provides insight into regional manufacturing activity and economic health.​
• 1:00 PM ET – U.S. Treasury 2-Year Note Auction
  The Treasury will auction $69 billion in 2-year notes; results may influence short-term interest rates and investor sentiment.