Letter to the Editor: Habeas Corpus attack should concern all of us

Dear Editor: 

Trump now wants to suspend habeas corpus for all U.S. citizens without exception. The rationale: America is being invaded by illegal immigrants (except Elon Musk).

I do not see armed militia of predominantly brown illegals within our borders murdering, raping men, women and children except rarely by the drug cartels fighting it out with other drug cartels.

I believe our local civil authorities, if funded properly, can handle anything the cartels have to offer. Why? It does not exist except what FOX News thinks will sell to the MAGA-minded, so they run with it. Meanwhile, in practice, “unwelcome people” are arrested and snatched off the street, out of their homes and workplaces.

In these instances, habeas corpus is denied to them, and they find themselves deported, if they are lucky, and luckier still if they are returned to their country of origin instead of a maximum-security prison.

The point here is that this invasion of “illegal aliens” is overblown and manufactured. It in no way constitutes a threat of the magnitude requiring suspension of habeas corpus. In short, we are not at war. The “illegal aliens” are not pointing cannons at us. Since the signing of Magna Carta, those detained have the right to a hearing. It is known legally as the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Trump and his cultish followers are ignoring what has been the very basis of law for hundreds of years.

We are way beyond Republican, Democrat, red, or blue. More important to me are my neighbors. I help them and treat them with respect regardless of political affiliation, gender, color or social standing. It’s time we stomp our own snakes and get those asps out of D.C. or we will all be living in the swamp “King” Donald promised to drain.

Impeach Donald Trump and send his minions packing in the midterms. Ignore your loss of rights, such as the Writ of Habeas Corpus, and you may find yourself at the Terrorist Confinement Center in El Salvador. Trump has allegedly paid El Salvador fifteen million dollars of our U.S. tax dollars to take his “unwelcome people.” Today, you are deported because you have brown skin. Tomorrow, you could be deported or “disappeared” for disagreeing with Trump’s policies, or maybe some already have.

The Trump administration’s denial of the Writ of Habeas Corpus is due more to political expediency than to an actual wartime necessity. Trump, who would be king, said he would go after anyone he thought was his enemy or in his way. How better to eliminate them than ignore their constitutional right of habeas corpus?

David Hoffman, MD