White House weighed suspending habeas corpus rights for undocumented immigrants: Book
The leaked memo says White House lawyers blocked the plan after staff warned it could trigger a major constitutional battle.
- Leaked memos reveal White House adviser Stephen Miller led a push to suspend habeas corpus as part of the administration's immigration crackdown. White House staff secretary Will Scharf warned the move would trigger a major constitutional battle in an April 29, 2025, memo to chief of staff Susie Wiles.
- Seeking to bypass Supreme Court rulings requiring deportation hearings, Miller argued the Constitution permits suspending habeas corpus during an "invasion." Scharf countered that only Congress possesses this authority, tracing the right's origins to the American Revolution.
- Scharf's memo emphasized that habeas corpus prevents "governmental actors from detaining, imprisoning or executing individuals arbitrarily." He warned courts have historically interfered with this right only in the "direst of circumstances."
- These documents provide a significant window into how far the administration was willing to go in "sidelining the courts" during its immigration crackdown. Ultimately, the controversial plans were blocked by Trump's own lawyers, demonstrating internal resistance to executive power expansion.
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27 Articles
Stephen Miller: The Man Behind the Tyrant
Republished with permission from Steve Schmidt Donald Trump is the face of this administration. Stephen Miller is its id. History teaches that every authoritarian movement eventually produces a man who believes that law exists not to restrain power, but to sanctify it. He isn’t always the loudest man. He’s rarely the most charismatic. He’s almost never the one giving the speeches from the balcony. He’s the man writing the memoranda. He’s the man…
Internal documents reveal that the White House discussed limiting access of detained immigrants to the courts in the midst of their immigration offensive
Habeas corpus—the constitutional right that allows any detained person to challenge his imprisonment before a judge—has only been suspended four times in the 250 years of U.S. history, all during wars or armed rebellions.A confidential memo dated April 29, 2025 reveals that the White House actively assessed suspending that right to accelerate mass deportations during the first months of Donald Trump's second term.The document was revealed by jou…
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