Perryman: “I think the important thing for everyone to know is that there is not a court yet in this country that has held that what the Trump administration is doing right now is lawful”
Washington, D.C. – Today, Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman joined MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera Reports to discuss the legal fight to stop the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful and unprecedented invocation of the wartime Alien Enemies Act when the country is not at war.
In the face of historic executive overreach, Democracy Forward is working to protect the interests of the American people and force the president’s actions into the sunlight. That includes helping lead the effort against the use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove people from the country without any due process.
Key Perryman Excerpts:
- On enforcement powers of the courts in cases involving the Aliens Enemies Act: “You’re already seeing that even in the Alien Enemies Act cases. You have a federal court in Washington that has already found that there is probable cause to believe that the government engaged in contempt. We are going to see over the course of the next weeks and months ahead, the federal courts in this country have to utilize their powers to hold the government accountable to their orders. They do have those powers.”
- On the Trump administration denying migrants access to their attorneys: “The federal courts continue to be unrelenting in their commitment, as our Constitution promises, to due process and to ensuring that the executive branch, in this country, and that the President and his administration are not above the law. We’ve already heard that the government wants to appeal this order, but I think that’s also something every American should be concerned about. Why is it that this President and this administration do not want people to be able to access their attorneys when they are being detained? That is a fundamental question that should concern all of us in this country, because of course, if it could happen to this individual, it could happen to any of us.”
- On the Supreme Court decision to allow Trump to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans: “This is really concerning for so many people who have been following this case and of course, for our overall system. It’s important to note that what the Supreme Court did yesterday is they really just put a pause on an injunction that a lower court issued finding by the way, that what the Trump administration had done was unlawful. You see the supreme Court wanting this to move through the District Court and the Appellate Court. ”
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