U.S. Vice President JD Vance came under fire late Tuesday after penning a lengthy social media post defending the Trump administration's assault on the fundamental right of due process, which the Constitution affords to everyone in the United States—including the immigrants currently being targeted for detention and deportation.
In his post on X, Vance—who has a law degree from Yale University—placed due process in scare quotes and claimed that "what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors," not the U.S. Constitution.
The vice president went on to mock those "weeping over the lack of due process" and suggested it would be too burdensome to hold legal proceedings for immigrants the administration is trying to remove from the country. Vance accused the Biden administration of allowing "approximately 20 million" undocumented immigrants into the U.S., a figure that one expert said is "totally made up."
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote that the post underscores that Vance "is a detestable liar and an open enemy of the Constitution."
"The central load-bearing factual claim here is completely false, and even if it wasn't, the Constitution contains two explicit guarantees of due process," Bouie added, referring to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. "I am absolutely serious when I say that they hate our freedom."
Journalist Matt Novak added that "if undocumented people have no due process rights, nobody does."
"Guys like Vance know that but they don't care," he added. "If anyone can be declared 'illegal' without due process, they can declare anyone illegal and you don't get an opportunity to prove otherwise. It's the simplest fucking concept."
"Without due process, Vance is as likely to destroy the life of an innocent man as he is to punish the guilty."
The Trump administration has shown utter disdain for due process as it has moved ahead with arrests and deportations of immigrants without providing evidence that they're guilty of a crime. A Timesinvestigation published Tuesday uncovered "little evidence of any criminal background" or gang associations for most of the hundreds of men the administration deported to El Salvador last month.
Among those now languishing in a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison is Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Top Trump administration officials, including homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, have claimed Garcia was not entitled to due process.
"The only process he was entitled to was deportation," Miller wrote on social media earlier this month.
But in a unanimous 9-0 decision last week, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. The high court also held that "detainees subject to removal orders under the [Alien Enemies Act of 1798] are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal"—directly contradicting Vance and other White House officials.
In a speech at Vance's alma mater on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) issued a chilling warning of the threat posed by the vice president's open rejection of due process rights.
"Without due process, Vance is as likely to destroy the life of an innocent man as he is to punish the guilty. And he does not seem to care," said Khanna. "In Vance's America, the police can knock on any immigrant's door, deport him to a dictatorship without due process, and then wash their hands of his fate, pretending that America is powerless to free someone outside our border."
