Trending
We hear a lot of demands for due process in reference to the deportation of illegal aliens these days. These complaints are especially loud from the left, but have also come from those who think they are just upholding the Constitution.
The problem with this claim is that there is no "due process" required for deportation. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution does indeed say, "No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;", but that does not apply here. If you look at this amendment, you will see that it is only saying that a person's rights may not be taken without due process. Only U.S. citizens have a right to be in this country. All others are here either as a privilege or illegally. As such, they may be required to leave at any time for any reason.
I agree that if we want to imprison non-citizens in this country for breaking our laws, thus taking their liberty, then we must follow due process. But to require someone, even if forcefully, to return to their home does not deprive them of any right. Now if when we return them home, their own country wants to put them in prison for being a murderous thug, then that's up to that country.
The very idea that someone who came here illegally has any right to stay or to contest being removed is ludicrous. So what about the asylum seekers? They too are here illegally. Our laws require anyone seeking asylum to do so in the first safe country they enter after leaving their own. All these so-called asylum seekers passed through at least one safe country on the way here and are therefore not eligible to claim asylum in this country.
So instead of due process we should give these illegal immigrants, undo process, to undo the process of their illegal entry into our country.
PAUL RINKER
Montoursville
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom