KEY POINTS
- Senior White House advisor Stephen Miller said that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the right to challenge a person’s detention by the government.
- Miller was answering a reporter who asked about President Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ of habeas corpus to deal with illegal immigration into the United States.
- “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion,” Miller said at the White House.
White House deputy chief of staff for policy
Stephen Miller said Friday that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which is the right to challenge the legality of a person’s detention by the government.
Miller’s comment came in response to a White House reporter who asked about President
Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ of habeas corpus to deal with the problem of illegal immigration into the United States.
Asked when that might happen, Miller responded: “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion.”
“So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” he said.
Miller said that Trump’s decision on whether to suspend the writ of habeas corpus “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”
Miller implied that “the right thing” is for judges to stop blocking the administration’s deportation of undocumented immigrants in cases where those people are exercising habeas writs.