If Immigrants Don’t Have Due Process, No One Has Due Process

How do you prove you’re a citizen?

Fascists believe only certain people deserve rights. Those whose identities are aligned with the fascist national project are full citizens and receive full equality in the state; everyone else is detritus to be subjugated or—if they resist subjugation—exterminated.

That at least is what fascists argue. But the truth is thateroding the rights of some inevitably means vitiating the rights of all. A two-tiered rights regime in theory is a no-rights regime in fact—as a Trump supporter recently made clear.

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The Trump supporter in question is a troll named Matthew. Matthew sent insulting messages to lawyer and journalist Qasim Rashid, attacking him for supporting immigrants. Rashid responded and published the exchange at his newsletter.

It’s worth reading the whole back and forth, but the part that I found most telling is here:

Matthew: Then you don’t know the constitution because even the Supreme Court has come out and said due process is for the American people aliens don’t get due process.

Rashid explains, with great patience, that Matthew is incorrect; the Constitution does in fact grant due process to all people in the US, no matter whether they are citizens or immigrants. I think it’s worth expanding on that just a bit and asking: Why is it important that all residents receive due process rights?

The answer there is another question: How do you distinguish immigrant residents from citizens?

Obviously, people have paperwork and records—birth certificates, green cards, identification records, paper trails—which would allow officials to determine if they are citizens or not. But those records are not always immediately available or self-evident. To separate citizens and non-citizens, you need to find the records and then some impartial official—like, say, a judge—needs to rule on their authenticity and validity.

In short, there has to be a reasonable, fair legal process to separate citizens and non citizens. Without that due process, armed agents of the state can simply decide that someone (even someone like Matthew) is not a citizen, and then punish them as they see fit, with no recourse.

This isn’t some sort of fanciful scenario. ICE agents do not have some mystical ability to differentiate citizens and non-citizens. In practice they often simply use racist rule of thumb—ie, skin color—to determine whether someone should be detained or violently attacked. There are many cases of ICE agents brutally assaulting citizens who they thought were immigrants. Because there remains at least some vestige of due process, they were released and many are now suing ICE for violating their rights. In Chicago, ICE thugs admitted that they were arresting people based on the fact that they did not look like the white reporter who was interviewing them.

White Trump supporters may feel like their looks protect them from ICE bullying or arrest. And to some extent they are probably correct. But again, if we move to a regime where there is in fact no due process for non citizens, then ICE can simply accuse anyone they feel like of being a non citizen, and deny them the ability to prove otherwise. Anyone who objects to ICE activities, or to any Trump actions (tariffs, refusing to release the Epstein files, whatever), could be arrested and disappeared with no recourse.

I don’t expect Trump supporters to be able to follow this logic; nor do I expect them to turn on Trump out of self-defense. People choose fascism because they care more about hurting others than about protecting themselves or their loved ones. Once you’ve chosen hate you’ve chosen hate. You’re not going to put hate down just because it might consume you any more than you’re going to give up your gun when you learn that owning a firearm is linked to increased risks of suicide, homicide, and accidental gun deaths.

There are, however, a certain number of people who are not fully MAGA, but who think that they can gain a tactical advantage by throwing a some marginalized individuals—trans people, immigrants, women, leftists, Palestinians—under various wheeled vehicles. For those radical centrists and quisling motherfuckers, I think it’s worth reiterating that removing due process for some inevitably means removing due process for all. If one person has no right to due process to prove their innocence, then no one has the right to due process, since the only way you can show that you are a person who deserves due process is through…due process.

Fascists seek to divide us because they know that eroding rights for some means eroding rights for everyone. Matthew is so eager to watch the state arrest, beat, and torture others he doesn’t realize that he’s granting the state the right to arrest beat and torture him and his family. Our liberty is our neighbor’s liberty; our justice is our neighbor’s justice. Our choice is not due process for some or due process for all. Our choice is due process for all, or the boot.