A Win for Due Process
Human Rights Defender Wins Asylum, Despite Trump's Deportation Campaign
“No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Fourth Amendment, US Constitution
DOES TRUMP truly not know the difference between asylum and ‘insane asylum’? Or is it the word “person” he has trouble grasping?
Human rights defender Heng Guan secretly videotaped government repression of Uyghurs in China, uploading footage of inhumane internment camps online. Photo: NY Times
Here is one more case that suggests Trump is relying on his perception of the public as ignorant morons willing to go along with pursuing deportation of anyone he targets, regardless of the facts, painting every immigrant as a criminal (except maybe Melania) —or, at best, as untrustworthy, while he normalizes oppression.
Please take a couple of minutes to read the linked New York Times article about Heng Guan. (Paywall has been removed.) Additional information can be found here and here.
This is an increasingly rare case where due process has put Trump’s worst instincts on a leash—at least for now. (DHS officials say they are reserving their right to appeal the court’s granting of asylum.)
As an aside, when I refer here to “Trump” and “he,” in addition to the president this is shorthand for Stephen Miller. In fact, it embraces the entire league of toxic weasels infesting this administration, including the lawyers and bureaucrats who have demonstrated their willingness to be “good Germans.” Trump himself is responsible for these miscreants and what they carry out on his behalf.
“…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Fourteenth Amendment, US Constitution
When Trump moved to send this courageous human rights defender back to China where he would almost certainly face persecution, it created a small uproar. Instead of backing down, they shifted to plan B: Uganda. Detain-and-deport is all they know.
Finally, the courts have said no, although he hasn’t been released from detention yet. the judge declared that Heng Guan’s claim of asylum is legit, despite Trump’s salivating stooges’ best efforts to argue against obvious truths. It is unclear whether they will appeal, continuing this irrational and inhumane push for deportation, but they’re keeping the option open.
This case illustrates well why people opposed to Trump’s radical stance harp on so much about due process. Without it, Heng Guan would have been long gone.
How many others, meanwhile, have already been deported without the opportunity to make their case?
Whatever the answer is, …