Railing on Trump's "Wall": Part III

"The best laid schemes o' mice and men
   Gang aft a-gley. ~ Robert Burns

It appears that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Temporary Restraining Order issued by the District Court in Washington State to halt enforcement of President Trump's executive order until it has been reviewed and deemed lawful.

Following the arguments of the plaintiffs, the Court dismembers the executive order remotely, preferring again to relate immaterial motifs that depend more on conjecture than on what the Executive Order stipulates: it prefers the interests of non-immigrant and immigrant visa holders to those of citizens, it prefers the interest of private institutions to the public welfare, and it prefers the arguable interests of the States to the explicit rights and duties of the Federal Government.  It also prefers to reserve judgment on the Constitutional issue relating to the Establishment Clause, not because the accusation is groundless both in fact and in law, but "in light of the sensitive interests involved", whatever that means.

All this while it continues to ignore the material claims of the relevant statutory law.

Such an oversight is striking particularly in Section VI of the appeal decision which reviews the Government's likelihood of success in countering the State's due process claims. Not once is 8 U.S.C. 1182 (f) mentioned in connection with the duty to provide due process, nor is it regarded as an integral part of due process. And since the President has the authority and the duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed", a statute which provides immediate and effective power to the President to halt all immigration or any part of it that he deems in the national interest at any time and for any period of time would seem to be sanctioned by his constitutional authority. (One may even argue that the Executive authority in 1182 (f) is especially intended for national emergencies, when due process may be altered according to the demands of the general welfare.) Nor does it regard the statutory right of the President to stop immigrants from entering the United States in any way relevant; it focuses instead on aliens who are already on this soil. It challenges the Executive's authority to enforce this Order upon aliens immediately and without notice or chance of reply as a violation of due process. It should be noted that the Order does not in any way require the deportation of undesired aliens, immediately or otherwise. It merely suspends their entry for ninety days, which provides them ample time to appeal their cases, and does not recommend any further action until the period of review and report has been completed.

And of course, pace this great authority, "due process" does not mean that undocumented aliens cannot be deported. It means merely that the government authority must have proof of an alien's undocumented status in order to enforce upon them compliance with national immigration laws. Illegal aliens are de facto and de jure criminals. Proof of illegal entry demands deportation. End of story.

As it is, I am still primarily concerned that this case will make its way to the Supreme Court, and that that august body will decide against the statutory power of 8 U.S.C. 1182 (f) without once considering it on its own constitutional merits. And that will be the end of border control, of defense against multi-cultural invasion and, in the end, the last nail in the coffin of the sovereignty of the United States.