May 16, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: In his letter published on May 14, 2025, Don Henke promotes a dangerous and xenophobic falsehood. He states, “Foreigners are not entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, so they are neither entitled to the rights, nor is the government entitled to supply services spelled out in the Constitution.” This claim is false on the basis of a long history of federal jurisprudence, beginning with the 1903 U.S. Supreme Court case, Yamataya v. Fisher. In that case, the Court ruled that non-citizens were entitled to a review of their rights prior to being deported, and that if they are living in the U.S. in a manner that accords with citizenship, then they may accrue Constitutional rights.
The Court’s decision in the Yamataya case has been explored, upheld, and strengthened by the Court many times in the years since, including in the following cases: Bridges v. Wixon (1945), Johnson vs. Eisentrager (1950), Kwong Hai Chew v Colding (1953), Shaughnessy v. U.S. ex rel. Mezei (1953), Mathews v. Diaz (1976), Plyler v. Doe (1982), Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), and Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam (2020). In these cases, the Supreme Court added greater specificity to the rights afforded to non-citizens, including due process under the Fifth and 14th Amendments (including against unlawful deportation) and freedom of speech protections under the First Amendment.
Mr. Henke and News-Gazette readers do not have to take my word for this history; they may look up the cases themselves. I learned about them in a brief online search that led me to https:// constitution.congress.gov and many other useful publicly-accessible websites on the history of U.S. Constitutional rights.
Before making further inflammatory and dangerously misleading statements in these pages that he falsely claims are “historical fact,” I encourage Mr. Henke to do his homework.
RICHARD L. WALLACE Lexington
