White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said in a video that went viral on Friday that undocumented immigrants are not entitled to due process protections when being removed from the United States, arguing that providing full legal proceedings would make deportations unworkable.
"There are 15 million illegal aliens," Miller said. "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."
There is nothing more inimical to the principles that our country was founded on than a government official declaring that due process should be tossed aside.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) December 25, 2025
Everyone is entitled to due process. Everyone. We thought it so important we wrote it into the Constitution TWICE. https://t.co/IbgxtCRfip
Supreme Court precedent has long held that constitutional protections apply to noncitizens within U.S. territory. In Wong Wing v. United States (1896), the Court ruled that the Fifth Amendment's due process clause protects noncitizens from arbitrary detention or punishment.
While immigration proceedings are civil rather than criminal, courts have repeatedly affirmed that individuals facing removal are entitled to basic procedural safeguards, as Aaron Reichlin-Melchik of the American Immigration Council explained on X:
Nope! Due process applies to all *persons,* not all citizens.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) December 25, 2025
The Supreme Court has *repeatedly* confirmed, including earlier this year, that people facing removal are entitled to due process, meaning the government must follow the procedures set out by Congress. https://t.co/8TpprHpGP7 pic.twitter.com/EYXl1Y8lO9
Immigration researchers have also disputed the "15 million" figure cited by Miller in the viral video. The Pew Research Center estimates the number of undocumented immigrants living in the United States at approximately 10.5 to 11 million, a level that has remained relatively stable for several years.
Miller's remarks follow public statements earlier this week in which he described birthright citizenship as an "illegal suicidal" policy and argued that immigration produces long-term social harm extending to future generations:
One point not made enough on immigration: when you have a national program (an illegal suicidal one) of granting “birthright” citizenship to the child of any and every foreigner who sets foot on your soil, you must be infinitely more cautious about who to allow into your country.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) December 23, 2025
A New York Times report published in December noted that Miller has increasingly framed immigration not only as a question of border enforcement but as a multigenerational issue tied to citizenship and assimilation. In media appearances, he has cited communities such as Somali Americans as examples of what he calls persistent failure to assimilate.
Miller's comments come as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a challenge to President Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants and certain temporary residents, an order that lower courts have blocked as inconsistent with the Fourteenth Amendment.
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