“Trump: Uninformed or Just Ignorant”

In a conference call with Alabama Republicans Donald Trump made another loony-tune declaration that with his “really good management” he could round-up and deport the estimated 12 million illegally present people in “13-24” months. These millions are the foundation of his quixotic race for President.
“We have to get them out,” Trump said on the conference call. “If we have wonderful cases, they can come back in but they have to come back in legally.”
This statement and his “13-24” month’s timeline for complete deportation of 12 million people are legally and constitutionally illegitimate, wrong and specious in every regard.
The statement proves beyond doubt that Trump has no idea of what he speaks. All his vaunted “smart” lawyers have either failed to inform him of the real legal world or they simply have stolen fat legal fees from him by simply lying to him. Or, he is just lying to himself and his “achichinqles (gofers, ass-kissing acolytes).
News for Trump and his “smart” lawyers: The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1886 (Yick Wo, 1886) that the 14th Amendment’s “Equal protection” equal justice clause applied to all persons thus aliens were entitled to due process.
In a deportation case in 1903 (Yamataya v. Fisher, 1903) the Court ruled that before an illegally present person could be deported that proper notice must be given and a hearing held in which the alien could present evidence that deportation was not warranted as required by the 14th Amendment’s “due process of law” clause.
In 1896, the Court ruled (in Wong Wing, 1896) that the 5th and 6th amendments (grand jury and trial by jury) applied to aliens and that could not be “deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
Simply put, Donald Trump’s magnificent and “really good management” would have to hunt down the potential deportees, arrest them, hold them in camps and prisons, and officially notify them of pending deportation then conduct hearings with immigration judges and prove that there are legal reasons for deportation. Then the suspected illegally present person can appeal to the federal courts.
Does Trump know that he has to jump through all these hoops to deport a single person? Does he know that all U.S. citizen children of the potential deportees also have legal paths through the federal courts to prevent their illegal deportation and the deportation of their parents?
With those questions and the 129-year history of the Supreme Court requiring constitutional procedures to deport a single person and demanding constitutional protection for even those “unlawfully” in the United States (Zadvydas v. Davis, 2001), one has to ask if Trump has any idea or basis of what he says.
Declaring that with his “really good management” that he can locate, arrest, hold, notify and conduct hearings then court appeals for an estimated 12 million potential deportees and perhaps millions more American citizen children all in “13-24 months” makes one wonder if Trump is just uninformed or just plain ignorant; or, is he just an uninformed ignorant man.

Contreras’ books on Immigration are available at Amazon.com