By Joseph Backholm

President Trump’s most recent presidential campaign promised to secure America’s borders. He promised not only strict enforcement of existing immigration laws, but to deport those who had entered the country illegally under a lax Biden administration. Early in his term he has delivered on those promises aggressively. Some would say too aggressively.

In fact, his efforts to remove illegal immigrants have been the subject of virtually non-stop litigation. With Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, progressives have turned to the courts in hopes of frustrating President Trump’s agenda, and a record number of federal judges have been cooperative. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently noted on his podcast there have been more nationwide injunctions against Trump in the first two months of his presidency than there were in the entire 20th century, with many of them involving immigration.

One of the lawsuits against the administration include a class action challenging the use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members. Trump designated eight transnational gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and believes this allows him to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport gang members as enemy combatants, a quicker process than the typical deportation process.

The case receiving the most attention involves Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who does not dispute his illegal presence in the country but was deported through a process the Trump administration admits was not legal. Mr. Garcia has become something of a cult figure on the Left, especially for Democrats who insist we are millimeters away from dictatorship. Upon deportation, the government of El Salvador placed him in prison. Four congressional Democrats have traveled to El Salvador to facilitate his release from prison and return to the U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, from Oregon, has vowed not to leave El Salvador until Mr. Garcia is returned to the United States.

The outrage over the case seems more performative than substantive. When a federal judge determined Mr. Garcia’s deportation to have been done illegally, he ordered the U.S. government to facilitate his return. But that part of the order may have exceeded the judge’s authority, legally and practically. Can a judge require the U.S. government to force the government of El Salvador to do something? If El Salvador does not release Mr. Garcia, is President Trump required to send a SEAL team to kidnap him?

Even if the Trump administration persuaded the government of El Salvador to return Mr. Garcia to the U.S., they would simply deport him again legally. So why all the fuss? Politics of course.

Congressional Democrats don’t care more about due process now than they did when Joe Biden was canceling student loans in defiance of court rulings, but they do care about making Trump look bad. Of course, Republicans who were very concerned about Biden’s refusal to follow the law during his term are less outraged over Trump’s failures to abide.

It turns out, as political power changes hands, so do the talking points. When you’re in power, you talk about “results” and “the will of the people.” When you’re out of power, you’re gravely concerned about “due process” and the consolidation of power. As a result, due process concerns are generally raised when your political opponents are doing something you fear the public will like.

But the rest of us shouldn’t play that game. While politicians may be selective about their due process concerns, we should be eternally vigilant. Due process, which begins with the idea that the government must follow the law too, is what keeps us from being governed by someone’s mood. It means there is not only a right thing to do, but a right way to do it. It means you can’t just make allegations, you have to present evidence.

If you’re never concerned about due process when people you like are in power, you’re more partisan than “defender of democracy.” And if you can’t bring yourself to care that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has rights because you’ve heard he’s an illegal immigrant, gangbanging wife beater — and he may be — you can’t complain if someday you find yourself in a world where no one cares about your rights because someone said something bad about you.

Due process matters because our Founders recognized two Christian doctrines: sin and the image of God in each of us. The reality of sin often leads people with power to do bad things to people who have no power. The image of God in each of us means it’s our responsibility to prevent that from happening because our value and our rights come from God. So, even though politicians aren’t always sincere or consistent when they talk about due process, we should be.

Joseph Backholm is Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council.