Due process is not optional

I am writing to express deep concern over the growing disregard for due process by the current presidential administration. This fundamental right — guaranteed by the Constitution in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to all individuals living on U.S. soil, regardless of citizenship — is vital to the justice and fairness our nation is built upon.

As reaffirmed unanimously by the Supreme Court on April 7, 2025, due process ensures that no one is deprived of life, liberty or property without fair legal procedures. Yet current policy changes and executive actions have led to the rapid removal of noncitizens, including asylum seekers and legal residents, often without a hearing — undermining this essential right.

In a recent meeting with El Salvador’s self-proclaimed “coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele, President Trump announced plans to deport U.S. citizens (“homegrowns”) to Cecot, a mega-prison where the Salvadoran Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro promised that inmates “will never leave on foot.” According to The Guardian, since 2022, civil society organizations and advocates have documented more than 6,000 human rights violations in the country, including arbitrary arrests (with no due process), instances of torture, and 366 deaths occurring in Cecot. Trump has proposed building five more such prisons to house U.S. citizens. This should alarm anyone who values the Constitution and due process as a safeguard for everyone on U.S. soil.

While efficient immigration enforcement may be a goal, it must not come at the cost of fundamental rights. Arguing that speed justifies eroding due process is dangerous and suggests some people are less worthy of legal protections. This undermines the core of American justice and democracy.

The Supreme Court’s reaffirmation of universal due process must guide our policies and principles. We must reject practices that prioritize expediency over fairness and recommit to the constitutional promise of equal protection under the law. The integrity of our legal system — and the safety of the vulnerable — depends on it.

Heather O’Malley, Glenwood Springs

South Bridge funding gap a bridge too far

In what we can only hope is soon to be former City Councilman Jonathan Godes’s final lengthy missive, he tries to explain, again, how yes, Virginia, there is a South Bridge (Post Independent, April 14, 2025).

Buried in his drawn-out fantasy there is a crucial fact that Mr. Godes gets right: he predicts a bid and groundbreaking in 2026 with a huge caveat: “Assuming the city and partners are able to close the gap in project design and funding…”

Assuming I close my funding gap, I am buying a 1958 Ferrari 259 Testa Rossa. Of course, if the city does not break ground in the fall of 2026, they lose any federal grant. The clock is ticking as the feds cut spending.

Again, you can’t build a now (supposedly) $85 million bridge with a $46 million grant you might lose to DOGE over property that is not yours and you can’t have. Those are the facts: millions of dollars short and you don’t control all the land underneath your pretend bridge.

Of course, many residents believe South Bridge was never about wildfire or a new bus line, as Godes claims, but really about new development in South Glenwood (at the airport) and up Four Mile to make developers more money and jam as many people as possible into Glenwood Springs. Destroying our town so Aspen can house its workers.

We will see in 2026, but don’t RSVP for the groundbreaking on the bridge yet, because the city does not have the money, and they don’t own or control the land where they want to build. But one can still dream, and maybe Santa Claus will give us the land and dump $40 million down the chimney.

Tony Hershey, Glenwood Springs

Protecting the planet is not partisan

Tuesday, April 22, is the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, which inspired bipartisan legislation for planetary health. Trump, ham-fistedly wielding his black Sharpie, is eliminating those regulations in support of big business interests for whom profits are key.

I grew up near Buffalo, New York, when Lake Erie was a toxic waste dump for the steel and chemical industries. Love Canal was the site of illegal dumping of chemical waste. Lakes in the Adirondacks were devoid of life due to rain laden with acid deposition. Earth Day offered a glimmer of hope that we could right some of these wrongs using the power of the federal government to create legislation holding polluters accountable, placing environmental quality ahead of profits.

In a series of bipartisan actions in 1970 and 1972, Congress created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and passed the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. This legislation is a cornerstone of environmental protection and we have all reaped the benefits. By passing these laws and creating these agencies, Congress confirmed that the job of the federal government included protecting us and our planet from the rapacious greed of corporations intent on making profits at the expense of healthy ecosystems.

Trump has been systematically hollowing out agencies that were created by Congress to protect our environment. He has rescinded parts of the Clean Air and Water Acts. The EPA is in his crosshairs. NOAA’s climate change research has been defunded. These actions will leave a legacy of environmental destruction that will haunt future generations.

It is time for Congress and all Americans to stand up and fight for what is right. On this Earth Day, we need to call our representatives and remind them that they should be speaking out on behalf of the planet. Congress works for us. Environmental quality is a bipartisan issue that affects every living creature on the planet. Don’t let one man with a Sharpie set environmental protection back 55 years.

Susie Ellison, Carbondale