Due Process Under Siege: Immigration, Executive Power, and the Constitution in 2025
In the American legal tradition, few principles are as sacred as due process. Guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, due process is the promise that no person—citizen or noncitizen—will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without fair and lawful procedures. At its core, it protects the right to be heard, the right to a neutral decision-maker, and the right to challenge government action through lawful means.
But in 2025, under President Donald Trump’s second term, this foundational protection faces its greatest threat in generations. Nowhere is this more evident than in the administration’s sweeping overhaul of immigration enforcement—a legal battlefield where due process has always been fragile, and now, increasingly at risk of collapse.
What Is Due Process and Why It Matters in Immigration
Due process isn't a luxury; it's a constitutional floor below which the government may not go. It ensures fairness in every kind of legal proceeding—criminal, civil, and yes, immigration. Immigration proceedings, while technically civil, often determine whether a person is exiled from their home, separated from family, or sent back to a country where they may face persecution, torture, or death. The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that even undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process protections. But those protections have never been more precarious than under the current administration’s aggressive approach to immigration.
Since returning to office, the Trump administration has wasted no time enacting policies designed to prioritize speed, volume, and executive control—often at the expense of fairness and constitutional oversight. The consequences for due process are chilling.
Mass Deportation Without Hearings
President Trump has vowed—and is now attempting—to carry out mass deportations using federal law enforcement, including the National Guard. Much of this effort relies on the expansion of expedited removal, a legal mechanism that allows certain noncitizens to be deported without a hearing before an immigration judge. By expanding expedited removal to apply across the country to anyone who cannot immediately prove two years of continuous presence, the administration has effectively stripped due process from millions, denying them the chance to present their case, seek legal counsel, or even speak to a judge.
Revival of the Alien Enemies Act
In a move unprecedented in modern history, the Trump administration is reportedly invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an archaic wartime statute, to justify the detention and deportation of noncitizens based on vague national security claims. The law allows the president to order the removal of individuals from hostile nations without the protections of a trial or hearing. Used in this context, it becomes a blunt instrument to bypass due process entirely, replacing judicial review with unchecked executive authority.
Curtailment of Judicial Oversight
The administration has supported legislative efforts to limit the power of federal courts to issue injunctions against executive actions, including immigration policies. The proposed “No Rogue Rulings Act” seeks to reduce the ability of district courts to block unlawful enforcement actions nationwide. This undermines a critical pillar of due process: the ability of individuals to challenge unconstitutional government actions in court—and win.
New policies are authorizing the construction of large-scale detention facilities on military bases, where noncitizens—many without criminal records—are held incommunicado, with limited access to legal counsel. These detention centers operate in legal gray zones, where basic procedural rights are often ignored.
What’s happening in the immigration context in 2025 is not isolated. It reflects a broader political philosophy—one that values efficiency and executive power over constitutional safeguards. If the government can detain and deport people without hearings today, what stops it from circumventing due process in other areas tomorrow?
Due process is not a partisan issue. It is a moral and legal obligation—a declaration that all people within the borders of this country, regardless of citizenship, deserve fairness under the law. To undermine it in immigration proceedings is to open the door to its erosion in all corners of American life.