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The Trump Administration is Imprisoning People Without a Hearing

The Constitution guarantees that no person can be jailed without a hearing. This is called "habeas corpus" and it's part of due process. It applies to everyone--citizen or noncitizen--no person can be denied due process of law.

The Trump administration has detained hundreds of people without hearings. 200 people were arrested-in their homes or going about their day--and sent to prison in El Salvador. Others have been sent to South Sudan or jails in the US.

The Administration has admitted that in some cases it didn't have any evidence of crimes. None of these people had a chance to prove their innocence or show that the administration was making a mistake. Some can't even contact their families to let them know what's happened.

Trump officials like Steven Miller and Kristi Noem have said outright that they want to eliminate habeas corpus. The administration wants to be able to arrest, deport, and imprison people with no chance to show they're innocent or there's been a mistake, no matter what the Constitution says. The point of having judges is to make sure when the Government arrests someone, they have a good legal reason.

Americans of all kinds--from ordinary people to Supreme Court Justices--should insist that the Government give everyone due process.

What can you do? Call your Congressional representatives and ask them to protect habeas corpus and due process. https://5calls.org makes it easy. If you see ICE, ask if they have a warrant and whether the person they're arresting will get a hearing. Attend rallies and insist that everyone gets due process-including habeas corpus.

More reports can be found at freedombell.us

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Links


  • Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228, 238 (1896) ("all persons within the territory of the United States are entitled to the protection guarantied by" the Fifth Amendment), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/163/228/
  • Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 693 (2001) ("the Due Process Clause applies to all 'persons' within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent"), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/533/678/
  • Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 77 (1976) ("There are literally millions of aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States. The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, protects every one of these persons from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. "), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/426/67/
  • https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/federal-judge-questions-trumps-authority-to-deport-migrants-without-due-process
  • https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-trump-prison-immigrants-4ab3fc3c0474efb308084604b61f8a37
  • https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/judge-says-trump-administration-violated-court-order-by-deporting-migrants-to-south-sudan
  • https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-supreme-court-immigrants-trial-due-process-1235322264/   
  • https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/03/immigration-trump-news-mass-deportations-tren-de-aragua.html
  • https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-deportation-el-salvador-cecot-prison-b2716191.html
  • https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/ice-makes-it-impossible-for-immigrants-in-detention-to-contact-lawyers
  • https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ice-deports-3-u-s-citizen-children-held-incommunicado-prior-to-the-deportation
  • https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-immigration-agency-blocks-lawyer-access-detainees-groups-say-2022-10-14/
  • https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-el-salvador-deportees-criminal-convictions-cecot-venezuela
  • https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/top-trump-adviser-suggests-white-house-could-suspend-habeas-corpus-to-deport-migrants
  • https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0523/trump-suspend-habeas-corpus 


  • https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/dhss-noem-suggests-illegal-immigration-justify-suspending-habeas-corpu-rcna207300 


  • https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wayne-state-law-professor-suspending-habeas-corpus-for-immigrants-unconstitutional/ar-AA1EAaSv 


  • Ábrego García v. Noem, 4th Circuit case no. 25-1404, order dated April 17, 2025, https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/docs/pdfs/251404order.pdf?sfvrsn=b404b209_2
  • https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-is-habeas-corpus-and-what-has-the-trump-administration-said-about-suspending-it
  • https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/politics/what-is-habeas-corpus-trump-kristi-noem.html
  • https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0523/trump-suspend-habeas-corpus
  • https://www.cato.org/blog/stephen-miller-says-we-can-suspend-habeas-corpus-because-we-are-being-invaded-own-words-belie