This piece was originally published at The Political Prism.

I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on TV. I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn last night. But I can read. As I understand it — and as the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed — due process of law applies to everyone on U.S. soil — not just citizens. The fact that we even have to clarify that should be alarming. It’s not like this is some radical, far-left idea. It’s the Constitution. The actual rules we’re all ostensibly playing by.

The President isn’t supposed to be able to send federal agents out like storm troopers to snatch people off the street and throw them on a plane without so much as a hearing. And yet — that’s exactly what’s happening.

They might dress it up in legal-sounding language. Use words like “expedited removal” and “public safety” and “efficiency.” But thats not justification—it’s just authoritarianism with a clipboard and a smug little wink.

We don’t get to skip due process just because we think someone’s a criminal. And if you think that’s how it works, you’ve missed the whole point. Due process exists to guarantee fairness — to make sure no one is stripped of their rights, their freedom, or their life without proper notice, a chance to respond, and a real legal process. It’s there to keep the government honest. Without it, it’s not justice. It’s just state-sponsored kidnapping.

But fine. Let’s play the “public safety” game for a minute. Let’s pretend, for argument’s sake, that every person being detained and fast-tracked for deportation without a hearing is some deranged criminal mastermind, hellbent on taking out every grandma in Des Moines with a rusty framing hammer. Even then — congrats — you’ve only cleared step one: you caught them. But in this country, even serial killers get a trial. Even a guy who confesses still gets read his rights and put in front of a judge. That’s not because we’re “soft” or “weak”. It’s because we’re not supposed to be a third-world banana republic.

The Supreme Court made this clear over a century ago in Yick Wo v. Hopkins and Wong Wing v. United States — where they said that constitutional protections like due process apply to people, not just citizens. That’s been the law since the 1800s.

And yet, when Donald Trump was asked in an interview whether he believes due process applies to everyone on American soil, including immigrants, he just kept repeating some version of “I don’t know, I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer.” When pressed further on whether out not the constitution applies, he shifted tactics, saying that we wouldn’t have time to deport millions of people if we actually followed the law and gave them fair hearings. As if upholding the constitution is something a president can just opt out of whenever something becomes logistically inconvenient.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s happening — and it’s happening often. There are multiple cases of people being deported without hearings, in defiance of court orders, or based on little more than suspicion. But the one most people know — the one that’s dominated headlines — is Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He was living in Maryland with his wife and kids when he was arrested and deported in under 48 hours, despite a standing court order barring his removal — because he faced likely torture or death if returned. Not because he was proven guilty of anything. Not because the court changed its mind. But because the government plowed right through his legal protections like they were a speed bump on the way to a campaign talking point.

 It’s like someone who won their case in court, only to be arrested again years later for the same thing — no new evidence, no warning, no trial. Just tossed in jail anyway. That’s not law enforcement. That’s a breakdown of the rule of law.

They even circulated a photo of Garcia’s tattoos with the letters “MS-13” slapped on top in clearly overlaid text — like someone dragged a label onto the image in Microsoft Paint. It wasn’t part of the tattoo. It was a caption. A visual accusation. A way to suggest that symbols like a pot leaf or a smiley face somehow proved gang membership. Trump himself shared the image online. And when a reporter pointed out that the “MS-13” text wasn’t actually tattooed on Garcia’s skin, Trump seemed genuinely confused — insisting it was real and “as clear as you can be.”

All this, from a guy who still seems weirdly obsessed with tweeting about how elderly and senile his predecessor is — an almost impressive display of psychological projection, considering his increasingly unhinged rants and the fact that he just mistook some superimposed text on a JPEG for a tattoo. Honestly, someone should probably warn Mr. Trump not to wire money to that Nigerian prince.

To be clear, I don’t know much about Garcia beyond what’s been reported. I don’t know if he’s a great guy or a bad guy. But again — and I know I’m sounding like a broken record here — that’s the point. We don’t know. That’s what hearings are for. That’s what due process is for. It’s not a courtesy. It’s a check on power. When the state decides guilt based on vibes and edits, and skips the process meant to test those claims — we’re not enforcing justice. We’re gutting it, and handing even more unchecked power to the executive branch.

And if that kind of “justice” — grab now, ask never — is your thing, maybe check out some real estate in Moscow. Or Pyongyang. I hear it’s lovely this time of year.

“Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t just apply to people we like. The right to a hearing — to defend yourself — that’s supposed to be the line between us and every authoritarian dumpster fire in history.

And even if you do buy the fantasy that only violent criminals are getting caught in this dragnet — we’re still way the hell off course. You don’t defend freedom by ditching the rules that make it possible. You just end up with a government that gets to pick and choose who counts as human.

And if you think that power is only going to be used on them — then you really haven’t been paying attention to history. It always comes home eventually.

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Nick Allison is a former Army infantryman, a college dropout, and a writer based in Austin, Texas. He spends too much time reading about history, democracy, authoritarianism, and systems in collapse — and not enough time being optimistic about any of it. He’s not a journalist or a pundit — just a political independent, unaffiliated with any party, who still believes the Constitution is worth defending. Ever since discovering the Mac shortcut for the em dash way too late in life, he’s been abusing it — constantly — and has no plans to stop.

Also, he secretly enjoys writing his own bio in the third person because it probably makes him feel a little smarter and more important than he actually is.