President-elect Donald Trump has pledged, starting on Day One, to begin physically deporting convicted violent criminals who are also illegal aliens. It's a first thrust against those roughly one and a half million illegals who have already been legally deported, but who either refused to leave, or who later snuck back into the country at a later date.

Which begs the question.  How is it that we have roughly one and a half million illegal aliens in America who have already been given deportation orders, but who are nonetheless still here, roaming free in America?  Does this make rational sense?  

Unlikely.

Something is broken.  Somewhere between arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing and execution of the deportation order, something broken has allowed these one and a half million convicted felons to escape from the orders of the court.  Let’s unravel this.

Here’s how it’s done today, beginning with them being given a deportation order by a judge.  First, following arrest, the violent criminal who is also an illegal alien is arraigned by a judge or magistrate, and either held for trial or given bail. 

Some of those who are bailed out show up for court.  Others don’t show, and some portion of these criminals are never found.  So they haven’t been tried and sentenced with an order of deportation.  This is where the first batch of criminal aliens stand. 

However, unless they are deported in absentia – something the court can do – they don’t fit the profile of the one and a half million who are flouting their deportation orders.

Of those who face trial, some are acquitted and go free, and are no longer considered as having been deported but not left. 

However, others are convicted.  Then, of these, some are taken to the border or in some other way returned to their country of origin. 

However, others are released pending execution of sentence. 

Of these, some returned to be deported, while others disappeared into society, becoming one of the one and a half million. 

That’s where they come from.  They are arrested, arraigned, tried, convicted and sentenced – then they disappear.

That is how it’s done. 

Some of those steps are guaranteed to all suspects under the Constitution, and we must use the Constitution – our Touchstone of Justice. 

However, there must also be some legal, Constitutional way of slamming the door on dangerous criminals who are also illegal aliens.  

Here is how I think it could – how it should – work.  And I offer this, confident that President Trump’s “secure the border” team already is working to keep criminals from entering our country and getting those they catch back to where they came from. 

When already-deported criminals slip through the cracks in our border, we must have a system that will boot them out – or make them wish, legally, that they’d never come in.  Our people will do this, or something even smarter and more organized to get the already deported out of the country, then make sure they can’t come back.

When someone is arrested and is identified as a dangerous criminal who is also an illegal alien, and this person had already been issued an order of deportation but – apparently – had ignored it, they need to be deported. 

They have legal rights, but that doesn’t ever excuse letting them back in, unpunished.  So they are arrested and arraigned in federal court – and perhaps we need a much larger team of federal judges who do nothing but handle these cases.  Kind of like a FISA court, but without the star-chamber nature and clear stench of corruption.  

Upon arraignment, all such criminals who are clear flight risks – which is to say all illegal aliens, who have proof of their ability to cross borders illegally – these men and women are to be held without bail.  Having children doesn’t matter.  Having a sick abuela doesn’t matter.  What matters is that they’ve overstayed their welcome and have to go.

Then, it’s time for the speedy trial promised by the Constitution.  They can ask for delays, and their attorneys might gain delays, but they’ll be held in federal prison without bail awaiting their speedy trial. 

Unlike normal criminal trials, these hearings will be more easily expedited.  After all, their lack of American citizenship will be a matter of record, as will their previous criminal activity.  Most telling, their previous order of deportation demonstrates their guilt.  Perhaps at this point, the judge might just say, “we don’t need a trial – he’s already been served an order of deportation, which is still valid.  So go ahead and physically deport him.”  That would be nice, but given the flood-tide of Biden judges being confirmed, there might be a next, necessary step.  A trial.  However, If they are not Americans, they have no right to be here.  If they have an order of deportation, they have no right to be here.  That should be sufficient criminality to justify a conviction and a sentence of deportation.  It’s not rocket science. 

However, it can and should be even easier than that.  

As we work through those one and a half million deportees who have either not left or who have come back, all have already been deported by competent judicial authority, should be acted upon decisively.  Fortunately, it’s a “light switch” solution.  They were deported but didn’t leave.  So deport them for real, or lock them up for breaking yet another law.

Assuming they are convicted and ordered for deportation – again – if not, then they are not one of the one and a half million, they should either be held in a federal detention center pending the actual, physical deportation, or they should be frog-marched to the border, pushed through a gate and slam a door. 

But if a judicial order demands that they be tried again – hey, stranger things have happened, especially in the 9th Judicial Circuit in San Francisco – it must take place as swiftly as is possible while also being compliant with any Constitutional rights that say – and there are none, but I want to be clear here – we have to hold them so they can settle their affairs, from within federal detention. 

Then, when it’s time, they are taken to the nearest border.  They are either taken in a chartered prison jet aircraft – ConAir, anyone? – and flown to their nation of origin, or they are taken in a prisoner transfer bus to the nearest border and gently frog-marched out of America, with the strong suggestion that they not return.

Of course, if they return and are caught, they should be sentenced – twenty years seems about right – in a federal SuperMax prison.  Then, upon completion of their sentence, they are held in custody while being physically returned to their nation of origin, by ground transportation or via prisoner-transfer aircraft.  They would be held only long enough to schedule their deportation.  There is no compelling need to hold off from trial for more than the bare minimum of time.  We know they were and are criminals already served with valid orders of deportation, so execute that order and be done with them.

It really isn’t rocket science – though Elon Musk now makes even rocket science look easy. 

Find them, confirm their identity, then whisk them away by whatever prisoner transport vehicles are appropriate and let their new home country figure them out.  It may be ugly, but that’s not our business.  Securing America is.

Ned Barnett is a life-long conservative and active contributor to American Thinker since 2006.  Two courses in law school as an undergrad were enough to persuade him that being an attorney wasn’t for him, because the law is so convoluted.  Ned thinks Trump will Make the Law Streamlined Again, and Tom Holman and his crew are already making that happen.  Ned can be reached at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or 702-561-1167.

Image: DHS, via Picryl // public domain