Top Trump adviser suggests White House could suspend habeas corpus to deport migrants

Geoff Bennett:

Today, the Trump administration again escalated its fight with the courts. In stunning remarks to reporters this afternoon, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the administration is considering suspending habeas corpus.

Habeas petitions give people the right to contest unlawful detentions.

Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff: Well, the Constitution is clear — and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of threat e writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So, it's an option we're actively looking at.

Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not. The courts aren't just at war with the executive branch. The courts are at war with — these radical rogue judges with the legislative branch as well too.

Geoff Bennett:

Miller's comments come as judges across the country have blocked major parts of President Trump's immigration agenda, including ordering that some students being targeted for deportation by the administration be released from detention.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, joins us now for the latest.

So, Laura, can the president do this, as Miller is suggesting?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

So habeas is the most basic entitlement to judicial review of unlawful detention, as you noted, Geoff.

And, essentially — I spoke to Steve Vladeck, the constitutional law scholar, who said that habeas is so fundamental that it is a right that is in the original Constitution under Article I, and that the overwhelming consensus is that it's long been that only Congress can suspend habeas corpus.

The only other time that a president has essentially done this is when it appears as though Congress is not in session. President Lincoln did this when Congress was not in session at the beginning of the Civil War, but then Congress later authorized the ability to suspend habeas.

Another constitutional law expert I spoke to said that this is significant because, without habeas, there's no way for a person to go before a court and to essentially argue that their liberty was taken away and have a hearing to argue that.

Now, the timing of Stephen Miller's comments is key here because of the fact that it's after a judge — judges have repeatedly ruled that the administration's actions regarding deportations are unlawful. And it also comes after a student just today was ordered released by a federal judge from detention after filing a successful habeas petition.

Geoff Bennett:

And that was the federal judge in Vermont who ordered that Tuft student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was being detained in Louisiana, is that right, that she must be released?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

That's right.

Geoff Bennett:

Bring us up to speed.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

That's right.

So, Rumeysa Ozturk is a Ph.D. student from Tufts who was not charged with a crime. Her student visa was revoked and she's been in detention since March because of an op-ed that she wrote that was critical of Israel that the administration said is evidence that she poses a foreign policy — an adverse foreign policy consequence.

And the judge today, District Judge William Sessions, said that the government's case was entirely based on this op-ed that Ozturk wrote, that essentially there was no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence to back up their claims that she poses a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

They said she does — the judge said that she does not pose a flight risk and so he placed no travel restrictions on her. He called her health — she suffers from asthma and she even had an asthma attack during the hearing today. He called her health in extraordinary circumstance and said that her further detention could potentially pose dangerous — a danger to her health.

And this is one significant line that the judge as well said, Judge William Sessions said, that: "Her continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens."

And I just want to say also, Geoff, that she was initially detained not far from her home. She was arrested by plainclothes agents off the streets of Boston and. When that video was released, it was pretty stunning to see.

Geoff Bennett:

Yes, we're looking at that video right now.

Laura, I know you spoke with another student who was recently released from detention, Mohsen Mahdawi. What did he have to say?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

That's right. Last week, Mahdawi was released from prison in Vermont after a federal judge ruled that the government continuing to hold him presented a great harm to his person who has not been charged with a crime. So, like Ozturk, he was not charged.

Now, Mahdawi is a green card holder and he was arrested by agents at his naturalization interview in April. Now, the Trump administration maintains that he — his role in leading protests on Columbia University against the war in Gaza posed, again, a foreign policy threat to the United States.

Now, Mahdawi is still facing the threat of deportation. He is allowed to travel to Columbia for his graduation later this month, and he's also allowed to travel for meetings with his attorneys. But I spoke to Mahdawi. I spoke to Mohsen Mahdawi last night about his experience.