White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 9, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said Friday that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the right to challenge the legality of a person’s detention by the government.
Miller’s comment came in response to a White House reporter who asked about President Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ of habeas corpus to deal with the problem of illegal immigration into the United States.
Asked when that might happen, Miller responded: “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion.”
“So, that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” he said.
Miller’s use of the word “invasion” reflects the Trump administration’s argument that the U.S. faces an “invasion” of undocumented migrants. The administration likewise has claimed that there is a national emergency from the influx of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the U.S. that justifies the imposition of high tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico without prior authorization by Congress.
A number of pending civil cases challenging the Trump’s planned deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States are based on habeas claims.
In one such case, a Georgetown University scholar, Dr. Badar Khan, is challenging the constitutionality or his arrest and detention.
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