WASHINGTON — White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller sparked controversy Friday after stating that undocumented immigrants in the United States are not entitled to due process protections during removal proceedings.
“There are 15 million illegal aliens,” Miller said in a video that circulated widely online. “If each were given a full trial, deportations would take centuries. They had no due process entering the country, and they are not entitled to it when being removed.”
Miller’s remarks come as the Trump administration intensifies efforts to restrict immigration and challenge birthright citizenship, describing immigration enforcement as a long-term social issue. Earlier this week, Miller called birthright citizenship an “illegal suicidal” policy, arguing that immigration has lasting effects on future generations.
Legal experts dispute Miller’s claims regarding due process. Supreme Court precedent, including Wong Wing v. United States (1896), affirms that constitutional protections, including the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, extend to noncitizens within U.S. territory. While removal proceedings are civil rather than criminal, courts have consistently held that individuals facing deportation are entitled to basic procedural safeguards, including notice and a hearing.
Miller’s estimate of 15 million undocumented immigrants also conflicts with research from the Pew Research Center, which places the figure at roughly 10.5 to 11 million — a number that has remained relatively stable in recent years.
His comments come amid ongoing legal challenges to a Trump executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants and certain temporary residents, an order that has been blocked by lower courts for conflicting with the Fourteenth Amendment.
Immigration advocates argue that statements like Miller’s could undermine protections for vulnerable populations while adding to the politicization of enforcement.
Shock Move: Trump Revokes TPS for Somalis 
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is immediately ending temporary deportation protections for Somali nationals living in Minnesota, expediting the conclusion of a program first implemented in 1991 under then-President George H. W. Bush.
“Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!” Trump wrote in a late-night
Truth Social post.
Trump’s declaration comes on the heels of a shocking investigative report by City Journal that said Minnesota, home to the country’s biggest Somali community, is rife with criminality and fraud under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, and that a lot of the money is being funneled to a terrorist organization in Somalia:
Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots.
In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota’s sizeable Somali community. Federal counterterrorism sources confirm that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab. As one confidential source put it: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
Meanwhile, Walz is facing more federal scrutiny over his administration’s handling of a state housing program that was shut down amid widespread fraud allegations.
Department of Human Services temporary commissioner Shireen Gandhi asked federal officials to help terminate the Housing Stabilization Services program, citing “credible allegations of fraud” and “exponential growth in spending.”
The Medicaid-funded program was intended to help older adults and people with disabilities secure housing. Still, costs soared from an estimated $2.6 million annually in 2017 to $107 million by 2024, according to the
Minnesota Star Tribune.
Fraud cases have included Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scandal, abuses in the state’s autism program, various Medicaid schemes, and most recently, housing assistance.
Two weeks ago, a Lakeville, Minn., man