r/politics • u/Murky-Site7468 I voted • 8d ago

Soft Paywall The Biggest Scandal of the Second Trump Term Isn’t “Signalgate” | The national-security chat debacle certainly merits attention. But the Trump administration is now blatantly disappearing students and others who are in the country legally.

https://newrepublic.com/article/193291/trump-disappearing-students-rumeysa-ozturk-rubio-biggest-scandal
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u/Buck_Thorn 8d ago

Just a reminder for anyone who doesn't know this already... "inalienable rights" means that those rights are "God-given", or are innate, and cannot be taken away. It has nothing to do with citizenship whatsoever. It is a statement of what our country supposedly believes about people.

The 14th Amendment ensures that “…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV

https://www.maniatislawoffice.com/blog/2018/08/do-non-citizens-have-constitutional-rights/

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u/bnelson 8d ago

In a country that has tolerated injustice throughout its history why does this little extraordinary injustice get people so angry? We have tolerated daily structural violation of peoples rights forever and nothing has happened. I am not being cynical. If provable structural racism won’t spur people into action I doubt larger acts will rate much either. Not enough people understand or even care about inalienable rights. Our people don’t understand how fragile their freedom truly is. It is not hopeless, but it is going to take more. The MAGA voters will have to feel pain and right now the law isn’t touching them so they are fine with all of this. Hell even when this has impacted them recently they don’t care.

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u/Akronite14 8d ago

MAGA voters will have nothing to do with ending fascism. They are a minority, and the people who sit on the sideline are only moved by the status quo changing. Yes, injustice is common practice in this country across various arenas, but when new forms of injustice crop up, that’s the most likely to move people.

We are our history, we know this isn’t an aberration, but it doesn’t mean people will just sit down and take anything (or at least most people).

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u/bnelson 8d ago

I agree, I just think a fraction of the stubborn MAGA and independents have to become full opponents of this administration. When clearly wrong and illegal actions poll with a near 50/50 split nothing changes just yet. It has to make Republicans more afraid of (their) electorate than Trump IMO.

(I am glad people are upset and fighting more, but it frustrates me to no end that it is like it is. I have been teaching my kids about this. A good book is “Ordinary Injustice” it lives rent free in my brain on this topic).

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u/thewaffleiscoming 8d ago

It is not hopeless, but it is going to take more.

It is hopeless because you could pick one out of hundreds of illegal shit this regime has done this year, even discounting the previous term, that should have ended him and his cronies but it has not happened. And then it becomes, 'if we didn't protest about that, then why this?'

That passage from "They Thought They Were Free" that gets posted a lot about German descent into fascism is dead on here.

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u/bnelson 8d ago

The universe only bends toward justice. It is not a straight path. Never lose your hope. It is what they want. I have my beliefs about why it won’t come to that, but the possibility is certainly real if enough people feel the way you do. As a framework I find “They Thought They Were Free” a little overwrought and misaligned to our current situation. But there are valuable lessons there. I don’t entirely disagree and have taken steps to protect my family (immigration) if the idiocracy wins.

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u/Buck_Thorn 8d ago

So, because we, as a country, have done some wrong in the past, that makes it OK to continue to do wrong? Is that what you're saying?

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u/bnelson 8d ago

I don’t know why you would draw that conclusion from what I wrote. It is definitely not OK. As a nation, we have struggled to fix serious commonplace injustice that impacts millions of people on a regular basis.

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u/Buck_Thorn 8d ago

why does this little extraordinary injustice get people so angry?

Because of that question.

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u/GoingAllTheJay 8d ago

Pretty sure they've changed the definition of inalienable to, "not for aliens."

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u/Buck_Thorn 8d ago

More likely they think it means "able to put it in an alien". "Can you put it in an alien?" "Yes, it is inalienable"

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u/xjmsx00 8d ago

Quit using the term "God Given". Which god? We, our forefathers gave us these rights when establishing this nation, not some religon

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u/Buck_Thorn 8d ago

Please don't be telling me what words to use. I am fully capable of saying what I want to say, thank you. I happen to be agnostic but "god given" or "God given" is a common phrase.

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u/xjmsx00 7d ago

Get off your high horse, and if you're agnostic, quit using the term. You realize some people actually believe god gave them their American rights, just hearing the phrase normalizes it and ingrains it in people heads.

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u/Buck_Thorn 7d ago

Those people have a right to their beliefs. It seems to me that you are the one on a high horse, trying to control the way others chose to speak.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

Deporting foreigners with harmful terrorist views like this IS due process. Not sure what the confusion is

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/Buck_Thorn 8d ago

No, it is not. Besides, the lack of due process has already caused at least two people that definitely were NOT gang members (one, a soccer player, and one, a barber) to be sent to prison.

You need to go back and reread the Constitution.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

Thats completely false. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled deporting foreigners due to harmful beliefs is legal. This IS the process. This is basic stuff we learned in elementary school.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/briefing/immigration-trump-constitution.html

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u/enderpanda 8d ago

It makes me happy seeing you get absolutely nowhere in this thread.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/enderpanda 8d ago

Fake news, sorry, lmao.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

Oh the deportations are fake? Great! You believe what you want!