Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said he doesn’t believe that the White House’s suggested habeas corpus suspension will reach Congress.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, host Kristen Welker mentioned statements made by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller last week in which he said President Trump and his team are “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
A writ of habeas corpus compels authorities to produce the person they are holding and to justify their confinement.
At first, Barrasso seemingly dodged the question, saying Trump “will follow the law,” adding that he stands with the president.
When Welker asked Barrasso if he would vote to suspend habeas corpus, he repeated that the president will “follow the law.”
However, Welker asked a third time if Barrasso would suspend habeas corpus, explicitly asking for a yes or no answer; he replied that he didn’t believe the suggestion would make it to Congress.
“I don’t believe this is going to come to Congress,” he said. “What I believe is the president is going to follow the law. He has said it repeatedly.”
Habeas corpus has been critical for migrants’ pending deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. It was used by detained students Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil to challenge their detention.
The act is a rarely used 18th-century power Trump cited to deport Venezuelan nationals he’s accused of being gang members to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
Former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin said the suggestion would be “such a wild step.”
“The only time a president has done it unilaterally without the authorization of Congress was Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, when Congress wasn’t even in session and couldn’t ratify what he was doing,” he said on Saturday.
Journalist Maggie Haberman also criticized the idea, saying Saturday that it is likely a way to strike fear in migrants and intimidate courts.
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