Our basic legal rights are being eroded as you are reading this. One of those rights is Habeas Corpus, the right to challenge the legality of detention or imprisonment.

Habeas Corpus, which appeared in the Magna Carta in 1215, is fundamental to English Common Law. It is Latin, meaning “produce the body.” Legally, it means that everyone detained by the state has a right to a hearing before a judge, to determine the legality of that detainment.

The Trump gang is ignoring that pesky concept when handling immigrants. In March, the U.S. government declared 238 migrants as dangerous gang members and imprisoned them in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.

They simply disappeared, without any plan for their eventual release, someday. They were not offered habeas corpus hearings, and now there are serious questions about who those 238 souls really are. CBS News reported that three-quarters of them have no criminal record and some have families who are frantically trying to save them.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that one of these prisoners must be freed and returned. But Trump’s gang is stalling. They want to hide what they have done and do not want this man talking about it. Once you get disappeared, you are not supposed to return, as a witness.

First, it’s immigrants. After that becomes normalized, it could be you or me. Trump is already talking about sending citizens to El Salvador.

That’s why the right to habeas corpus is fundamental and universal in countries under the rule of law. The jury is out on whether that still includes America.

Dave DeLeon

Haikū