White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters Friday that the administration is “actively considering” suspending habeas corpus as part of its effort to address illegal immigration.
“The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,” Miller said during an informal exchange with reporters at the White House. “So that’s an option we’re actively looking at. A lot of it depends on whether the court will do the right thing or not.”
Miller highlighted that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, Congress explicitly removed jurisdiction from Article III courts in immigration matters, effectively preventing the judicial branch from intervening in certain immigration decisions. One key example given was Temporary Protected Status (TPS), where the statute specifically bars courts from overruling determinations made by the president or the Secretary of Homeland Security.
“When Secretary Noem terminated TPS for illegals that Biden flew into the country,” Miller noted, courts had no authority to intervene—yet did so anyway, in direct violation of Congress’s clear jurisdiction-stripping language.
“So the courts aren’t just at war with the executive branch, the courts are at war, these radical rogue judges, with the legislative branch as well too. So all of that will inform the choice that the president ultimately makes,” he added.
