1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am again writing regarding this Republican administration’s disregard for due process, the rule of law and the authority of the U.S. Constitution. The administration has ignored the due process guaranteed in the Constitution. It has ignored the Supreme Court when the Court twice ruled due process must be observed. The executive branch is acting unilaterally as if it were the sole branch of our government. This shown most blatantly in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was snatched off the street, given no chance to discover his guilt or innocence or immigration status and sent to an overseas torture prison where the United States has no jurisdiction. If this administration can do that to Mr. Abrego Garcia, it can do it to anyone, U.S. citizens included. John Quincy Adams argued, when defending the Amistad captives before the Supreme Court, “I submit to your Honors that, if the President has the power to [suspend due process] in the case of Africans, and send them beyond seas for trial, he could do it by the same authority in the case of American citizens.” President Trump said publicly, in the Oval Office, he would like to start sending “homegrown” criminals who are U.S. citizens to that same brutal prison. The legislative branch has the power to rein in this administration and its shredding of our rule of law. You and your colleagues have that power. You and your colleagues have that duty. Will you rise to this occasion, or will you allow the executive branch to continue to ride roughshod over our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights? My wife and I strongly urge you, again, to restore checks and balances to our government. The Constitution is only as strong as those who support it.