Something I neglected to add in yesterday’s post is that Attorney General Michael Mukasey‘s order doesn’t just prevent individuals under deportation from having access to an attorney, it prevents those that do from reopening their case if their lawyer is incompetent and say, doesn’t show up to a hearing or misses a deadline. It’s really difficult to understand how that doesn’t violate the right to due process. The Fourteenth Amendment says that no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” It’s hard to argue that immigrants, even undocumented ones, are not persons under United States jurisdiction while they’re on American soil, since our law enforcement officials certainly reserve the right to arrest and detain them. 

— A. Serwer