人兽性交

But when he tweets that immigrants coming across the border should have no due process rights 鈥� as he did this weekend 鈥� it鈥檚 time to stand up and take notice.聽

Due process of law is a fundamental bulwark against tyranny. It traces its origins back 800 years to King John and the English Magna Carta. In our Constitution, the principle was first enshrined in the Fifth Amendment and provides that 鈥淣o person shall 鈥� be聽 deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.鈥� The same principle was later repeated in the Fourteenth Amendment.

As the language of the amendments makes clear and as the Supreme Court has recognized many times, 鈥淣o person鈥� means citizen and noncitizen alike. 鈥淸O]nce an alien enters the country, the legal circumstance changes, for the Due Process Clause applies to all 鈥榩ersons鈥� within the United States, whether their presence is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.鈥� Zadvydas v. David, 533 U.S. 678, 693 (2001).

So, when the president of the United States starts talking about taking due process rights away from anyone, we shouldn鈥檛 shrug it off as just rhetoric meant to energize his base. Instead, we should be alarmed 鈥� not simply by the president鈥檚 profound ignorance but by what he might try to do next.

I always recoil whenever someone starts suggesting that we鈥檙e on a slippery slope heading to something akin to the Holocaust. But, I must admit that when I read about the president鈥檚 anti-immigrant tweet, I thought about the famous words of German theologian Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out鈥�
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out鈥斅�
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out鈥斅�
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me鈥攁nd there was no one left to speak for me.

The lesson, of course, is clear. We can never shrug off threats to liberty. We must always speak out. We must always resist.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center is operating the largest pro bono deportation defense initiative in the country, with satellite locations at five immigrant detention centers in the Deep South and affiliates at six other locations. Click here for more information聽about the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative.