...The last 18-plus months have underscored why legal doctrines that free the political branches of constitutional constraints in immigration are no longer defensible. At best, unconstrained power risks abuses; at worst, it leads to open and unapologetic abuses.
Every day the Trump administration provides us a case study in how unchecked power over immigration risks humanitarian crises and moral wrongs. The administration was, and perhaps still is, forcibly separating young children from their parents at the border with no apparent plan for reuniting them. It is criminally prosecuting people seeking asylum in the United States from unthinkable violence in their home countries. And it is making it extremely difficult for undocumented women in its custody to see medical professionals to perform abortions that will end pregnancies, some of which are a result of rape.
The Trump administration faces lawsuits that challenge these and other policies. In fighting off those challenges, the administration frequently argues that it has comparatively greater authority over immigration and that immigrants have relatively fewer constitutional protections, compared with other areas of law. Today, the Supreme Court told the president he is right and that courts will not stop him from subjecting migrants to discriminations and abuses that this administration could not impose on citizens. The question is whether the rest of us will step up and stop the administration instead.
