The philosophy driving the Supreme Court is essentially founded on the concept of the Unitary Executive. It will be interesting to see if the Court explicitly states that in the upcoming series of decisions it will render in the coming weeks regarding Mr. Trump’s ability to withhold funds appropriated by Congress, to terminate employees of federal agencies, deploying troops to war zones, etc., or whether it is disguised in those decisions. Justice Barrett attempted in her book to cast the Supreme Court as following the law, when in fact what the Supreme Court is doing is following the Unitary Executive philosophy which is not the law and in fact, goes against the other principle that they purport to operate under which is originalism. In fact, the founders were largely fearful of exactly what has happened with Mr. Trump and his exercise of powers as the Chief Executive, destroying, in large measure, a coequal branch of the government, the Congress. I would reiterate that this is the most important concept that has been hidden from the public by the Supreme Court and is deeply embedded in Project 2025, again, even if it is not spelled out as such.
There has been much conversation about the need for warrants in immigration raids, and I think it is important to understand that under Section 287 of the Immigration Naturalization Act there is no need for a judicial warrants to arrest someone for an immigration violation, and that the guideline really is that there must be a reasonable suspicion that the person is illegal immigrant in order to stop them and inquire. The understanding of the law is important because I think it will help protect immigrants, protesters, and the police. It is also important to note that the level of deportations apparently is falling since June, even with significant increases in detentions. Some may be choosing to leave the country voluntarily, which apparently is significantly up, and in essence, resolving the problem and decreasing deportations. The critical step in my view that is missing, is that at some point we are going to reach a crisis in terms of available workers to do the types of jobs that immigrants have been doing for 30 or 40 years, maybe longer. At that juncture we are going to see dramatic disruptions to the economy, and so the Trump administration needs to have a plan in place to begin the process of working illegal immigrants into the US system. To put it simply, we need them doing this work.
Mr. Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada met with Mr. Trump recently, and it seems as if not much was resolved, as he continues to struggle with securing any changes from Mr. Trump’s positions on tariffs, and it appears Mr. Trump is wagging the threat of reforming the USMCA or terminating it as an additional tool. My suspicion is that tampering with the USMCA will raise significant opposition from the business community in all three countries, and most importantly, in the US because many of those affected are at least currently his supporters. If you start hitting people in their pocketbooks, they tend to be less supportive.
The Glenn Medical Center in Willows, California, a critical access hospital, recently closed after serving the population of about 28,000 for 70 years. These patients now need to travel significant distances for care. It also appears that this county, Glenn County, voted for Mr. Trump by about a 75-80% margin. They are now reaping the benefits of that vote by losing their medical center, and I suspect that they are starting to see the impacts of deportation on the migrant community that picks their crops in this very agricultural region. I think they all should thanks to Mr. Trump for disrupting their lives in such meaningful ways that will not make their lives better.
We are also beginning to see air traffic being negatively impacted and a number of air traffic control centers which are facing a shortage of workers because of purported sick days, thus, resulting in flight cancellations and delays. I wonder how long the public will put up with that.
In the absence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Reports, we are seeing the private sector fill in the blanks, including Bank of America, Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs, and others, who are all reporting rising unemployment, and general weakness in the labor market. They are not necessarily providing information on the cause, just the reality of where the labor market is, and it is not good. I am sure that this can be blamed on tariffs, as well as general concerns about the economy. Another lurking culprit, of course, is AI as companies try and figure out what their path forward is with this new tool, which obviously will cause jitters for everyone. By the way, we lost 32,000 jobs in the private sector last month.
In a follow-up as to who is responsible for violence, and who calls for violence, it could not be more clear when we see Republican State Representative John Gillette call for violence against US Congresswoman Jayapal. He was quoted as saying “Until people like this [referring to her] that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged . . . it will continue.” The problem with this is what she actually said was a call for peaceful protests. The delusion of the MAGA-right is simply beyond comprehension as no reasonable person could perceive his statements as anything other than intending to incite violence, and Mr. Trump said nothing.
Small businesses are raising grave concerns over tariffs as many are getting close to the point of having to pass along the increased cost that they believe will result in significant losses of business and potentially put them into bankruptcy. It will be interesting to see what Mr. Trump has to say about the backbone of the economy.
I think it is also important to note that the continuing message from Republicans that these democratic healthcare bills result in illegal immigrants being entitled to healthcare is absolutely a fabrication. The law is explicit that illegal immigrants are not entitled to healthcare. The situation gets complicated because of a law passed and signed by President Reagan in which he installed something called EMTALA which entitles anyone going to a hospital to be treated on an emergency basis. However, in most cases, the hospital is not being paid by the American taxpayer nor is the American taxpayer being burdened, only the hospital and the physicians caring for people are.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
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