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 the writ of habeas corpus, which is 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, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” he said.
Miller said that Trump’s decision on whether to suspend the writ of habeas corpus “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”
Miller implied that “the right thing” is for judges to stop blocking the administration’s deportation of undocumented immigrants in cases where those people are exercising habeas writs.
The idea of habeas corpus was codified in the Magna Carta, signed by King John of England, in the early 13th Century.
“No man shall be arrested or imprisoned…except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land,” the provision 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 administration’s 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 of his arrest and detention.
The Trump administration has chafed at orders by judges blocking efforts to summarily deport immigrants, including alleged gang members.
Miller said that Congress had stripped federal courts of jurisdiction over immigration cases with the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“The courts aren’t just at war with the executive branch, the courts are at war, these radical rogue judges, with the legislative branch as well,” Miller said.
“So all of that will inform the choices the president ultimately makes.”
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