Title: How Trump’s deportations are testing the boundaries of presidential authority[In-Depth]
Source: America
Link: americamagazine DOT org/politics-society/2025/03/21/trump-venezuela-gang-tren-de-agua-salvador-bukele-human-rights
The Money-Quotes:
As a candidate, Donald J. Trump made no effort to obscure his plans for a vast clampdown on undocumented immigrants living in the United States. But his administration’s recent targeting of academics who are legally in-country and its deployment of an arcane legal theory to deport hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador this month have come as something of a shock to the system.
That may be intentional, Charles Wheeler told America. Both actions represent efforts by the Trump administration to probe the boundaries of executive authority, he said.
Mr. Wheeler is a staff attorney for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), a national advocacy and attorney training program founded by U.S. bishops to protect the rights and human dignity of immigrants.
Mr. Wheeler notes an audacious overreach by the administration that he believes should worry all American citizens. “Trump [is] flexing his power and trying to push the law into areas that have not been tested before,” Mr. Wheeler said, “using a 200-year-old law in a way that [it] was never meant to be used.”
“And the challenge really is not to the people affected but to the rule of law itself.”
[…]
But “what the Trump administration is doing,” Mr. Wheeler said, “is trying to deflect us from the issue of the rule of law and focus on the people themselves, saying, ‘These are criminals; these are gang members, these are dirtbag scum that you don’t want in the United States.’ They’re trying to divert attention from the actual law and procedure.”
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The author is another voice confirming my diagnosis of an intent by the Trump Admin. to divert attention away from the Rule of Law and "actual [Due] Process" by redirecting focus toward People, viz., to focus enmity towards an obscure but omnipresent Enemy and, by default, worshipfulness towards Dear Leader.
Immigration laws have been ignored and usurped for political reasons and power by Democrats. Trump is restoring order. Period. Now, if you want to make a point that LEGAL immigration needs reformed, I'm all in. That is all.
SlowToke wrote: 28 Mar 2025, 18:48
Immigration laws have been ignored and usurped for political reasons and power by Democrats. Trump is restoring order. Period. …
Apparently not. At least, not when measured against magisterial Catholic moral requirements which, uncoincidentally, are the same basic requirements (after translation into a legal framework) as International Law.
And further, not according to many of the authorities currently ruling in the District courts. Of course, I anxiously wait for the rulings of SCOTUS which — though neither infallible nor irreformable — will chart the course of the nation's immediate future. Crossing my fingers.
SlowToke wrote: 28 Mar 2025, 18:48
Immigration laws have been ignored and usurped for political reasons and power by Democrats. Trump is restoring order. Period. …
Apparently not. At least, not when measured against magisterial Catholic moral requirements which, uncoincidentally, are the same basic requirements (after translation into a legal framework) as International Law.
And further, not according to many of the authorities currently ruling in the District courts. Of course, I anxiously wait for the rulings of SCOTUS which — though neither infallible nor irreformable — will chart the course of the nation's immediate future. Crossing my fingers.
Catholic moral teaching is adamant that we cannot vote for politicians who support abortion. That's why Kamala lost the Catholic vote, as she insisted on her support for the killing of children and she offered not relief to migrants or citizens regarding the Democrat's open border policies.
If you want your justice for migrants, mothers, and unborn children -- Talk to your Democrats. We can't do justice without their hearts and participation.
Meanwhile, Conservative Christians are doing our best to fix the problems at hand.
SlowToke wrote: 28 Mar 2025, 18:48
Immigration laws have been ignored and usurped for political reasons and power by Democrats. Trump is restoring order. Period. …
Apparently not. At least, not when measured against magisterial Catholic moral requirements which, uncoincidentally, are the same basic requirements (after translation into a legal framework) as International Law.
I'm assuming too much in the fog of your posts....
What do you think is happening?
What do you want to see happening?
And if you must use syllables like "due process," please describe what you think this would look like....
SlowToke wrote: 28 Mar 2025, 18:48
Immigration laws have been ignored and usurped for political reasons and power by Democrats. Trump is restoring order. Period. …
Apparently not. At least, not when measured against magisterial Catholic moral requirements which, uncoincidentally, are the same basic requirements (after translation into a legal framework) as International Law.
And further, not according to many of the authorities currently ruling in the District courts. Of course, I anxiously wait for the rulings of SCOTUS which — though neither infallible nor irreformable — will chart the course of the nation's immediate future. Crossing my fingers.
Harvesting illegal aliens for votes to retain power because you don't have the support of your countries legal citizens is neither compassionate or moral. I anxiously await the SCOTUS ruling as well because I strongly believe they will restore the rule of law as it was intended. We, as a nation, do allow and invite immigrants through legal channels. The Democrats advocating for and assisting immigrants in usurping the proper legal pathway to citizenship rather than passing legislation to make legal immigration easier is wrong. I think you know that deep down.
SlowToke wrote: 30 Mar 2025, 13:27
Harvesting illegal aliens for votes to retain power because you don't have the support of your countries legal citizens is neither compassionate or moral. …
Affording people their Universal Human Rights is moral.
Denying people their Universal Human Rights because of a nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be getting away with something is not.
SlowToke wrote: 30 Mar 2025, 13:27
Harvesting illegal aliens for votes to retain power because you don't have the support of your countries legal citizens is neither compassionate or moral. …
Affording people their Universal Human Rights is moral.
Denying people their Universal Human Rights because of a nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be getting away with something is not.
'Nuff said?
It's not a universal human right to go wherever you want. Order demands law. Otherwise, anyone can just come camp out on your couch whenever they want.
SlowToke wrote: 30 Mar 2025, 13:27
Harvesting illegal aliens for votes to retain power because you don't have the support of your countries legal citizens is neither compassionate or moral. …
Affording people their Universal Human Rights is moral.
Denying people their Universal Human Rights because of a nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be getting away with something is not.
'Nuff said?
NO. You've said nothing. Chatter about "Universal Human Rights" is just chatter.
Who are being denied Universal Human Rights? What 'right' is being denied?
How should that right be restored, in terms of a practical policy.... something clear that people can do or not do, and know that compliance has been met?
Are we supposed to give a blanket amnesty to all aliens?
Are we supposed to shoot the gang leaders on sight?
What is the actual policy that you want to see?
Wosbald wrote: 30 Mar 2025, 13:47
Affording people their Universal Human Rights is moral.
Denying people their Universal Human Rights because of a nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be getting away with something is not.
'Nuff said?
It's not a universal human right to go wherever you want. Order demands law. Otherwise, anyone can just come camp out on your couch whenever they want.
'nuff said?
Your original point was, apparently, that since the respect for certain Rights accrues to the benefit of some politically disfavored group, this is justification to deny those selfsame Rights.
My response was that decades of the Democratic Party ostensibly benefiting from exploiting Immigration as a political wedge-issue is no more a legit reason to deny the Right to Migrate than is decades of the GOP ostensibly benefiting from exploiting Abortion as a political wedge-issue a legit reason to deny the Right to Life.
Now, if you want to switch gears and interrogate why affirming the Right to Migrate doesn't nullify the legitimacy of a nation's Border Security and Immigration Systems, then we could certainly have that convo. But one thing at a time please.
