First, Trump issued an executive order to militarize domestic law enforcement. Now a new order has come out. Buried in Project Homecoming, the executive order just released by the White House, is the single most dangerous shift in American civil liberties in a generation.
The same man who empowered ICE with military-grade surveillance, armored vehicles, and counterterror tools is now pushing the legal justification to detain people indefinitely.
The administration is laying the legal groundwork to suspend habeas corpus, the constitutional right that protects people from being detained without trial. It’s the right to not be disappeared. It’s the foundation of due process. And they’re getting ready to tear it away.
How? They’re invoking the Suspension Clause of the Constitution, which only allows habeas to be revoked “in cases of rebellion or invasion.” Stephen Miller and the Trump legal machine are now planning to label undocumented immigration as an “invasion,” which would let them bypass courts and jail people without charges, trials, or legal representation. The administration is trying to reclassify undocumented immigration as an invasion to unlock those powers. That’s the strategy.
Let that sink in. They’re preparing to create a class of people who can be detained indefinitely without ever seeing a judge.
Ask yourselves, If anyone can just be disappeared off the streets without charges, without court appearances, without access to a lawyer then do we still have a democracy?
This is just the beginning, it won’t stop at immigrants. So let’s be clear about what this will look like.
Indefinite detention. No due process. No hearings. No legal protections. We’ve seen this playbook before in history—and it always starts with creating a legal exception for a specific group. In this case, it’s undocumented immigrants. But legal exceptions do not stay contained. Once the precedent is set, it expands. Always.
Ask yourself: who defines what an “invasion” is? Who decides who qualifies as a threat? Protesters? Activists? Whistleblowers? Once the right to challenge detention is suspended for one group, the door opens to expand it. That is how authoritarianism consolidates power.
While they call this “restoring order,” here’s what they’re really doing:
They’re tearing $96.7 billion out of the economy. That’s how much undocumented immigrants contributed in taxes in 2022, Specifically:
• $59.4 billion in federal taxes
• $37.3 billion in state and local taxes
• $33.9 billion toward social insurance programs they are banned from accessing
Again, these are people paying into Social Security, Medicare, and public infrastructure they’re not even allowed to use.
The source? The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read it yourself. https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/
California alone would lose $8.47 billion in annual tax revenue if these mass deportations succeed. Texas would lose $4.87 billion. New York? $3.1 billion. Every state would feel the economic gut punch. And don’t forget: these are programs undocumented workers pay into but cannot use. They’re helping hold up a system that offers them nothing in return.
Now ask yourself: who is going to make up that lost revenue?
You. The poor. The working class. Not the rich, who continue to dodge taxes with impunity.
The federal government has already slashed funding to the states. Wealthy elites are sitting on tax loopholes and lower effective rates than working people. The answer is obvious: the working class will be left to cover the difference. Your rent, your healthcare, your school funding—all of it will take the hit.
What we are watching is economic sabotage wrapped in xenophobic theater. It is designed to scapegoat immigrants, distract from billionaire tax breaks, and destroy civil liberties in the process.
We have reached a dangerous tipping point. A government openly discussing the suspension of habeas corpus is a government no longer pretending to be democratic.
Habeas corpus is the line between freedom and fascism.
If we let this fall, there is no turning back.
This is the moment where people either pay attention or pay the price. Be ready.
Read the order. Learn what’s happening. Sound the alarm. Talk to your communities. And above all, do not get used to THIS.
Originally Posted By u/transcendent167 At 2025-05-10 10:37:42 AM | Source
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), hereby proclaim and direct as follows:”
The fucking gall of this regime to claim that these flagrant violations of the constitution are done under authority vested in him by The Constitution.
Read the order. This is exactly what they are doing in order to try to push this bullshit past the courts.
They are using the invasion clause in the constitution to suspend constitutional rights.
Our judges can surely read legal documents, don’t you think? Wording like this is to push it past the people, despite any judicial readings/rulings.
I didn’t say judges. I said courts. This wording and the use of a “plausible” legal argument is meant to give cover to Trump friendly judges.
Didn’t judges already knock down the “immigrants/gangs count as an invasion”?
judges rulings are enforced by the executive
Seems like a major loophole in the design of the system really.
It is.
and a known one at that. 7 exposed it and then no one has been willing to give up their own power to close it. 45/47 has now exploited this loophole to a new degree. before congress could use the threat of impeachment to reduce the threat but the muscovite tortoise made sure of that
7 exposed it and then no one has been willing to give up their own power to close it. 45/47 has now exploited this loophole to a new degree.
Please use names. Not everyone grew up being taught about when in the succession of presidencies the Jackson abomination was, and the Mango Mussolini is 44th when you count people rationally rather than pretending that he and Cleveland were two people each for no good reason.
it’s an intentional choice. numbers indicates this is a consistent system working against us. names obfuscates that the system is rigged against us and assigns culpability to individuals rather than the wielders of power
Can’t judges also deputize people to enforce their rulings? I remember reading about that in one of the other cases in the last few months.
they can! so why haven’t they, is the question
(the answer is they’re fine with this or are otherwise too scared to act)
I feel like they might get their shit together after a couple more get arrested for upholding the actual law.
But that’s the optimist part that hasn’t somehow died in the floods.
Except congress could use it for impeachment/conviction if they’d do the right thing.
did they? As far as I know the JGG case is still in progress…
If they can deport immigrants without due process, they can deport you.
I’m with the rebellion. Not even being funny. My lemmy posts alone would put me in that category. And being an armed liberal makes me top of list.
Might as well give them a body if it doesn’t matter anymore.
You’re fucked now. This is not coming up, this just happened. The real tipping point was the supreme court’s decision that the president can not be prosecuted, now you’re going down the slope at speed. Good luck, you’ll need it.
Invest in lead. Invest in steel. This is tyranny and tyranny only knows one remedy.
He already has for “illegals”. The rest of us are soon to follow if we wait to act until it affects US. Martin Niemöller was on to something, maybe we need a reminder of his words:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Isn’t the suspension clause a privilege that only Congress has? (ex parte Merryman)
