In a recent string of statements, several Fox News personalities have argued that due process is simply too hard when it comes to deporting immigrants. It’s too slow, too cumbersome, too inconvenient. We’re told that judges and hearings and rights are “luxuries” we can’t afford. That when it comes to undocumented people, we should just expel first and ask questions never.
Let that sink in.
We are now publicly debating whether or not people should have a right to defend themselves before the government strips them of everything. And for what? For political points? For ratings? For applause lines at rallies?
No.
When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.
Due Process Is Not a Technicality—It’s the Core of Liberty
Due process isn’t red tape. It isn’t a loophole to be closed. It’s not some bureaucratic indulgence we can toss aside when it’s politically expedient. It is the line between order and tyranny, justice and abuse. The idea that no person—no person—should be punished, detained, or deported by the government without the chance to be heard, to defend themselves, and to demand the evidence against them.
And if that sounds like too much work, then you are unfit to speak about freedom.
Because if you can justify shredding due process for one group, you’ve already accepted that it’s optional for all groups.
When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.
This Isn’t Just About Immigrants—It’s About You
It starts with immigrants because that’s the easy sell. Because it’s always easy to erode rights from the people you’ve dehumanized, from those without power, from the ones your audience is primed to fear. But once due process is eroded for them, it’s not long before it’s you who’s being judged unworthy of it.
History does not whisper here—it screams. When rights become conditional, they always shrink inward, until only the powerful are protected and the rest of us are subjects, not citizens.
So when Fox News nods along to the idea that it’s “too hard” to provide hearings before deporting people, they aren’t talking about national security. They’re talking about normalizing authoritarianism.
And they’re doing it with a smile.
When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.
The Constitution Does Not Come with an Exception Clause for Ratings
The Constitution doesn’t say “liberty and justice for all, unless it’s inconvenient.” It doesn’t say “equal protection, unless the person looks like they crossed a border.” The protections of due process apply to everyone on U.S. soil for a reason—because a government that can act without constraint against one person can do it to any person.
Today, it’s an undocumented immigrant.
Tomorrow, it’s a protester.
The day after, it’s you.
When you take due process from one, you take it from us all.
If the Process Is Hard, Fix the System—Don’t Burn the Constitution
If the immigration courts are overwhelmed, if the system is backlogged and broken, reform it. Fund it. Staff it. Modernize it. But do not pretend that the solution is to simply eliminate the guardrails that keep government power in check.
Doing so doesn’t make us stronger. It doesn’t make us safer.
It just makes us more vulnerable to the next person in power who decides that you are the next group not worth the trouble.
Because once due process becomes optional, it becomes extinct.
And when you take due process from one, you take it from us all.