LETTER: Where is the due process?
It’s terrifying to see news reports of people being taken from the street, their homes or public places by masked men in unmarked cars. They are being kidnapped and taken to unknown places without being able to contact a lawyer or their families.
According to our Constitution, every person in the United States is required to be treated fairly by government authorities. Every person accused of a crime has the right to legal representation and a trial before a judge. Each person is to be considered “innocent until proven guilty.”
These laws and the principles behind them are what make up due process. Without due process the accused person cannot prove their innocence. If you believe that immigrants don’t deserve these protections, you are missing the point. If our government can take away any person’s right to due process, then they can arrest, jail, or deport any one of us on the word of an accuser whether we are guilty or not.
This is happening to United States citizens right now. Recently a citizen and her daughters were treated like criminals when ICE raided their Oklahoma rental home in the middle of the night. Their belongings were taken from them and haven’t been returned. Children born in the United States are being deported. Even children in active cancer treatment are being deported.
Our current president and his Cabinet are instructing immigration and FBI agents to act in cruel and unlawful ways. If we as a nation don’t stand up and denounce this lawlessness, we are all in danger. This danger is very real as President Trump has been videotaped saying that he wants to deport “home-growns next.”
We need to wake up to the danger our nation is in. The danger that every one of us is in if this doesn’t stop.
Kathryn Forsyth
Bentleyville