'Furthest Thing Away From... Due Process': IL AG Kwame Raoul Rips Trump Deportation Actions

Forbes Breaking News

During a joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul about President Trump's mass deportation agenda.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. I want to recount an experience I had in Chicago last Friday, Kwame, and it's

00:10not an unusual one, but I went to the immigration court to watch and to listen. And unlike reported

00:18in many parts of the media that these gotaways and others are avoiding the reach of the law

00:25in the United States, the people who were there were all there because they'd received a

00:30legal notice to appear on a status call for their claims to stay in the United States

00:36legally. They brought their families with them and some had attorneys with them, lots

00:41of paper and the like. We know what's happening in some of these cases. These people are appearing

00:48for hearings and the government, the federal government, ICE, is standing up and saying

00:53we're dismissing the charges against this individual. So there's no case to consider and at that

01:00point detain them and deport them to the country, some country where they once lived. There was

01:08that fear in the courtroom. The only difference was the leader of the court there told me that

01:14when I announced I was coming to the building that day, ICE agents announced that none of

01:19them are going to be around that day. So I didn't see any. Also, many of these ICE agents are masked

01:24and are not identified in any way. These people who are being detained and deported don't have

01:31any indication of formal rank of this individual and they're stuck with it. This to me is a clear abandonment

01:40of basic due process in terms of what's happening to these people. We're not talking about murderers,

01:45terrorists, rapists, people with serious mental illness. You remember the litany that's been

01:51recounted to us by President Trump over and over. These are people who are trying to follow the law

01:56of America and get their day in court. And it's an awesome process to follow. I would like to ask you,

02:02each of you, if you've run into similar abuses of due process in your state and have any suggestions

02:08of what we ought to be doing.

02:12Thank you, Senator Durbin, for your question. As you know, I'm a child of Haitian immigrants who

02:17went through the immigration process in this country and have contributed greatly to this country, as

02:25have millions of other immigrants who have come to this country, including those who are currently

02:35undocumented. The notion that the practices being used in Chicago and other municipalities to have

02:44some of those who have been complying with the immigration processes and responding to notices

02:51to appear and then being detained as a result of them complying with the immigration process is

03:00unconscionable. And it's the furthest thing away from what I understand is due process.

03:07There's no definition of due process. I know some have tried to indicate that the notion of due

03:15process is different in an immigration context as another. There's no way that such deceptive practices

03:24can be defined in any way as due process. As you know, I am defending what we call the Trust Act

03:37within the state of Illinois, which makes certain that our law enforcement resources are not misused for

03:46immigration enforcement processes. I know the administration has defined their efforts

03:54on immigration as to be targeted towards criminals, but the the evidence with regards to those detained

04:02reflect a different a different story. And indeed each and every one of us here

04:09have historically collaborated with our federal law enforcement partners on enforcing criminal laws

04:16against citizens and non-citizens, and we will continue to do so.

04:21But the notion that these deceptive immigration practices can align with what the purported

04:29purpose of this more aggressive immigration enforcement effort is the furthest thing from the truth.

04:37I would just say that if you followed, excuse me, if you followed the questioning that had been asked

04:44of judicial nominees over the last two decades, and I've served on Senate Judiciary during that period

04:50of time, it has changed dramatically under the Trump administration. We are now asking nominees to the

04:56Department of Justice, even nominees to the bench, whether or not they believe an executive has to

05:01follow a court order or whether they can defy a court order. That is so fundamental to due process and rule

05:10of law, and yet you ought to hear the answers we're receiving. A lawful court order, they'll say. Well,

05:16who decides if it's lawful? Under Marbury, we know it's the court makes that decision. And yet that is,

05:23that I think is at the heart of whether we will face a constitutional crisis in this country. At this point,

05:30I'll turn over to... If I could try to respond to your question, Senator. I just wanted to say,

05:37for the record, that I have looked for and searched for a law prohibiting ice or from wearing masks.

05:47And I haven't found one. Maybe somebody else is aware of it, but I've looked for it and I haven't,

05:52my research hasn't turned it up. I think that there might be some reasons for a mask in certain

05:58situations. There might be health reasons. Certainly during the pandemic, you might see someone

06:03wearing a face mask, or maybe there's some undercover reason. But I think that if this

06:08body were to pass a law saying, you may not wear a mask to hide your face so that you cannot be

06:15identified, so you can avoid accountability, I think that would be a good law to pass. There may be

06:21exceptions, and I don't want to foreclose any, but I think in general, the practice must be that if you

06:28are upholding the law and operating legitimately and constitutionally, you shouldn't be afraid to

06:35hide your face. And if we veer from that, we will see highly unaccountable conduct flow there from.

06:45So thank you for allowing me to say that.

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