Administration considering eliminating habeas corpus in its fight against immigration

Stephen Miller, senior policy advisor to President Donald Trump, announced Friday that the White House is considering suspending the constitutional right to habeas corpus for detained immigrants. This right allows detainees to legally challenge their detention before a judge.

Miller claims that there is a constitutional clause that allows habeas corpus to be suspended in cases of "invasion or rebellion." He declared before the media that the massive entry of undocumented immigrants through the southern border constitutes an "invasion" that would enable the government to act without the need for individual judicial processes for each deportation.

Miller's statements raised suspicions about the government's actual ability to suspend habeas corpus. Its suspension has occurred on countless occasions throughout the country's history, usually in contexts of war or national crisis.

The last government to attempt to suspend this basic concept of the right was George W. Bush. It was in the case of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay who were accused of terrorism. However, the Supreme Court ruled against Bush.

Prior to this failed case, habeas corpus was suspended after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. Prior to this, it also occurred during the war against the insurrection in the Philippine Islands in 1907.