Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Monday on Just the News that President Donald Trump does have a legal path to deport thousands of illegal migrants but emphasized it must be done with proper due process.
“I think the Supreme Court is sending a clear message: you can do it,” Dershowitz told the program. “Just do it right, and understand that due process doesn’t have a singular meaning.”
Last week, the Supreme Court intervened in Trump’s immigration crackdown by temporarily halting his use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal migrants in Texas. The decision marked a major legal setback for the administration and has been widely criticized by left-leaning and centrist legal scholars.
The high court sent the case back to a lower appeals court to resolve key factual disputes, including how much notice individuals targeted for removal must receive and whether Trump’s use of the 18th-century law is lawful in this context, Just the News reported.
The ruling came just weeks after a federal judge sided with the administration, allowing the deportation of suspected members of foreign terrorist groups—including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua—under the historic statute, which has been invoked and amended during both World Wars.
Other federal judges have also blocked deportation efforts, with some questioning whether deportees were given, or should be given, adequate due process. The administration, meanwhile, has argued that in addition to being members of organizations designated to be terrorist groups, the majority of those being deported have already had their day in immigration court and have pending removal orders.
“It [due process] means the process that is due to you,” Dershowitz said. “Depending on your status, if you’re a citizen and they’re trying to put you in jail, due process means you know every conceivable right that human beings know.”
“But,” Dershowitz continued, “if you’re a student on a visa, and you’re here at the deference of the government, due process only means they have to give you an opportunity to disprove the allegations against you. So it’s minimal.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration does have the authority to revoke protected status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans.
The decision came in response to an emergency request from the administration, urging the Court to overturn the Biden administration’s move to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals. The underlying legal battle will now proceed in the District Courts.
“The Supreme Court is going to recognize that the executive, the president, has the power to decide who stays in the country and who goes,” Dershowitz said. “But they have to do it in the right way. They have to do it consistent with due process.”
He stated that the president must ensure that deported individuals are granted basic rights.
“You gotta make sure you have the right people,” he said.
“You have to make sure they’re afforded their basic rights, but don’t try to constrain the president and the executive from substantively determining who stays in the country and who doesn’t stay in the country,” Dershowitz further explained.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court stepped in last week to shield the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from transparency demands, temporarily halting lower court orders that required the agency to respond to freedom of information requests tied to an ongoing lawsuit.
The move on Friday buys time for an agency created by Trump through Executive Order 14158 on Jan. 20, an aggressive initiative aimed at slashing waste and forcing bloated federal bureaucracies to answer for their spending.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay, effectively freezing the lower court orders while the Supreme Court decides how to proceed with the case. He offered no explanation for the move, leaving critics to question why transparency is being delayed yet again, The Epoch Times reported.