Kit Malone
Due process is the legal framework that is supposed to protect us from being snatched off the street.
It can mean a lot of things, but generally its supposed to be a process for determining if someone can be arrested, and to offer them an opportunity to mount a defense.
If they are allowed to make one exception, it all crumbles - they can just grab you on the thinnest of excuses. Wrong race, wrong language, wrong neighborhood. Or because an officer doesn't like the way you looked at them...
Kit Malone
tl;dr If even *one* person can be denied due process rights, those rights by definition cease to exist for everyone.
We are left with "who can we get away with arresting without provoking a public outcry."
Kit Malone
Now that due process is gone for undocumented immigrants, it is functionally gone for everyone. At this point, the only thing holding it together for anyone is the social norm.
The administration is already trial-ballooning arrests of citizens to see how the public responds. If the people accept it well enough, they'll keep doing it. The number of people who we "can't afford" to give due process rights too will steadily increase to include anyone inconvenient.
Kit Malone
Doubt that it's possible? It's already exactly this easy:
OFFICER: Stop, you are under arrest for being an illegal immigrant.
YOU: But officer, I'm a citizen. Here's my driver's license.
OFFICER: I think that looks fake. You are an illegal. Get in the van.
YOU: But this van says "Alligator Alcatraz" on the side and don't I have a right to see a lawyer??
OFFICER: [Fingers taser] Nope. I say you're an illegal. Get in the van.
Think that's an overstatement?
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article311554316.html
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