Welch examines the Trump Administration’s ongoing use of immigrants to attack the fundamental rights of all Americans 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on The Constitution, this week joined U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Senate Democrats for a forum entitled “Cruel and Unamerican: The Abuse of Immigrants to Attack our Constitutional Order.”  The United States Constitution lays out certain fundamental principles that define our country, including freedom of speech, due process, and the separation of powers—but the Trump Administration is attacking these rights. 

“We all are committed to the right every person has to a hearing before they’re subject to arbitrary authority of a government—any government, including our government—and that is under attack now. That is absolutely unacceptable. Due process has been our foundation. It is the right of all of us to have a hearing and we’ve got to protect that,” said Senator Welch. 

“What is going on now is a politicization of immigration as an excuse to bully your way into a debate and a threat of arrest to the California governor. The reality is, what is now supposedly about ‘immigration,’ is really about a mass-roundup of people at their workplaces. It includes DREAMERS—people who came here through no agency of their own but by their parents—many of those folks went on to serve as police officers, in the military. In Vermont, we have one who graduated from the University of Vermont Medical School.  

“And it is a policy that is all about the political agenda of the President as opposed to providing any enhanced security and safety for the people of this country. Not to mention, it has dire economic implications. So, that’s what’s going on—and let’s name it and call it what it is.” 

Watch Senator Welch’s full remarks below: 

The Trump Administration has used immigration to attempt to undermine constitutional order and the rule of law, including: unprecedented attacks on due process, including arbitrary arrests and the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport noncitizens to El Salvador without a hearing; deploying the National Guard over the objections of local authorities; sending masked agents to arrest noncitizens for speech and expression protected by the First Amendment; disappearing noncitizens to El Salvador, South Sudan, and Guantanamo, with threats to send “homegrown criminals” next; and dismantling congressionally authorized oversight, including shuttering oversight offices and arresting a member of Congress attempting to conduct oversight. 

Senators Welch and Durbin were joined at the forum by Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). 

Watch a livestream of the spotlight forum here. 

Senator Welch has been a leading voice in pushing back against the Trump Administration’s unlawful attacks on due process and the rule of law. Last month, Senator Welch slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to effectively deport more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti who fled war, political persecution, humanitarian crises, and failed economies to migrate lawfully to America through the humanitarian parole process. 

Following President Trump’s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, Senator Welch joined his colleagues in calling the action an ‘unlawful and brazen power grab.’ Senator Welch also joined a bicameral group of colleagues in writing to the Trump Administration demanding information about the arrest and detention of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk and similar incidents across the country. 

In April, Senator Welch joined 24 Senators in urging the Trump Administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father who was living legally, under protected status, in Maryland with his family until he was wrongfully deported without due process by the Trump Administration last month to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.  

In March, the Vermont Congressional Delegation decried the Trump Administration’s illegal and immoral detention of Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, Vermont, by the Trump Administration. Senator Welch met with Mahdawi in Vermont during his detention and subsequently published an opinion piece in the Boston Globe entitled: “Detained activist Mohsen Mahdawi: ‘A prisoner of this White House,’” outlining the dangers and consequences of the Trump Administration’s determination to run roughshod over the First Amendment. 

Earlier this year, Senator Welch joined Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees in sending a letter to President Trump denouncing his transfer of immigrants from the United States to Guantánamo as unlawful and asking for answers to basic questions yet to be provided to Congress. Senator Welch also recently joined 26 of his colleagues in introducing The Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2025, legislation to provide unaccompanied children with legal representation for their court when they appear in proceedings before an immigration judge. 

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