Who does it apply to? Citizens ? Anyone whose feet are on US soil legally or illegally? If all border enforcement stopped and we had 30 million new illegals on US soil, would they all deserve civil rights?
Good question. Certain rights, like the right to be in America, and the right to vote, they don't have. However, the Constitution otherwise applies to all people in the United States.
We interviewed several legal scholars who agreed that undocumented immigrants have many constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, and if arrested, a right to a Miranda warning.
"There is no question that all persons in the United States including unauthorized migrants enjoy the protections of the Constitution," said Gabriel (Jack) Chin, law professor at University of California-Davis. "There is no debate about that among legal scholars."
The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment protects everyone from deprivation of life, liberty or property without due process of law, Chin said.
There have been several court decisions dating back more than a century that outline the rights of undocumented immigrants.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas vs. Davis (2001) that "once an alien enters the country, the legal circumstance changes, for the due process clause applies to all persons within the United States."
In a Texas case, Plyler vs. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that non-citizen children must get a free K-12 education.
But undocumented immigrants don’t share all of the rights held by citizens -- for example, they can’t vote in state and national elections.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/s...ocumented-immigrants-have-constitutional-rig/
There is expedited removal without complete due process for those caught coming into the United States. Trump has proposed making it apply to anyone here less than 2 years. It's questionable whether or not courts would buy that idea.
