US Governance — 2026-06-15

NYT Reveals Trump White House Weighed Suspending Habeas Corpus and Invoking Insurrection Act Against ICE Protesters

BLUFFormal invocation of the Insurrection Act against immigration protesters remains unlikely through mid-September, but internal restraint is tactical rather than principled, leaving both tools available if protest violence escalates.

The New York Times reported June 15, drawing on Haberman and Swan's book "Regime Change," that Stephen Miller repeatedly pressed Trump to suspend habeas corpus for undocumented immigrants, which would eliminate judicial hearings and bar court orders blocking deportation 12. Will Scharf, White House staff secretary, countered in a confidential memo to chief of staff Susie Wiles warning that habeas suspension requires an act of Congress, not a presidential order, and would be overturned in court 34. After federal agents fatally shot protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Vice President Vance argued the Insurrection Act was needed "to crush the unrest in Minnesota," and Scharf objected in a separate memo warning of near-certain judicial defeat 24. Former deputy chief of staff James Blair argued against the move on public-relations grounds, asking the room what the act would provide that the administration did not already have; neither measure was ultimately invoked 134.

Analysis
Formal Insurrection Act invocation against immigration protesters is unlikely by September 15, 2026, but the restraint reflects Scharf's institutional cost-signaling and Blair's PR arithmetic, not principled constraint, leaving Miller and Vance positioned to revisit both tools if conditions shift. Moderate confidence follows from the obtained memos as evidence, offset by single-primary sourcing, the inherently closed nature of White House deliberations, and Miller's documented persistence in cycling back to rejected options. The Scharf memos may represent a durable check that systematically routes extreme proposals to the president with legal exposure signals rather than a one-off veto contingent on his continued access. Civil liberties organizations and state AGs calibrating litigation posture through September should treat domestic military authority as a live but legally costly threat, not a retired one.
4 sources
  1. Frustrated by Courts, Trump Weighed Suspending a Constitutional Right - The New York Times
  2. White House Seriously Considered Suspending Habeas Corpus, Invoking Insurrection Act: Report - Newsweek
  3. Secret Memo Exposes Trump Team's Debate on Suspending Constitution - The New Republic
  4. 'Alarm' at White House After Vance and Miller Pushed Insurrection Act, Habeas Corpus Suspension During Anti-ICE Protests - Common Dreams

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