【Text by Observers Network, Chen Sijia】Since President Trump took office, he has continuously tightened immigration policies, and agencies such as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have launched deportation actions against illegal immigrants across the country. To accelerate the pace of deporting immigrants, White House officials once proposed challenging the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, stating that they were "actively considering" suspending the writ of habeas corpus.

On August 6 local time, the American magazine Rolling Stone noticed that the online version of the U.S. Constitution on the Library of Congress website had been quietly modified, deleting the contents of Article I, Sections 9 and 10. The deleted content included a provision regarding the writ of habeas corpus that Trump disliked: it guaranteed U.S. citizens the right to question their detention and required the government to provide a legitimate explanation for the detention.

This action immediately drew public scrutiny in the United States. In response, the Library of Congress explained that the deletion was due to a "coding error." As of now, the relevant content has been restored.

The report stated that over the past few weeks, Article I, Sections 9 and 10 of the U.S. Constitution had disappeared from the constitutional annotations page on the Library of Congress website, including the provision regarding the writ of habeas corpus. This provision states: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

The timing of this incident is quite sensitive. In May, Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, publicly stated that the Trump administration was considering suspending the writ of habeas corpus to assist with the deportation of immigrants. Miller said at the time, "The writ of habeas corpus can be suspended during an invasion, so this is an option we are actively considering."

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen claimed that the writ of habeas corpus is "the constitutional right of the president to deport individuals from the United States." However, Rolling Stone pointed out that this is actually contrary to the true meaning of the writ of habeas corpus.

Earlier this month, when asked whether the president has an obligation to uphold the U.S. Constitution, Trump replied, "I don't know."

According to sources who are aware of the situation, on the morning of August 6 local time, U.S. government officials privately told staff that the deletion of the relevant clauses on the Library of Congress website was the result of a "technical malfunction." Therefore, staff are urgently repairing the issue, investigating the specific cause, and reviewing other pages on the website for any other obvious deletions.

The U.S. Library of Congress subsequently posted a statement on the social media platform X, stating that the deletion of the relevant clauses was due to a "coding error." "Someone alerted us that some parts of Article I were missing from the constitutional annotations website," the institution wrote. "We found out that this was due to a coding error. We have been working to fix this problem and expect it to be resolved soon."

A statement by the U.S. Library of Congress on the X platform

However, some federal government employees expressed doubt about this explanation, as the deleted part happened to be a constitutional clause that Trump openly opposed during his second term. A federal employee involved in handling the matter told Rolling Stone, "It's quite an interesting coincidence."

As of the afternoon of August 6 local time, the deleted sections had been re-added to the relevant webpages. The U.S. Library of Congress stated in a statement to Rolling Stone: "Due to a technical error, certain parts of Article I were temporarily missing from the constitutional annotations website. This issue has been corrected, and the missing parts have been restored."

The report emphasized that merely deleting provisions of the U.S. Constitution on a website does not change U.S. law, and the Library of Congress is not even the official custodian of the U.S. Constitution.

This incident occurred as Trump is trying to seize control of the Library of Congress. Despite the fact that the director of the Library of Congress, Carla Hayden, has not yet completed her 10-year term, Trump fired Hayden in May and is preparing to replace her with the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Todd Burch. The Library of Congress is a research department of the U.S. Congress and maintains the world's largest collection of books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and recordings.

American CBS News reported that within six months of Trump's inauguration, ICE has deported approximately 150,000 immigrants. If this rate continues, the agency will complete more than 300,000 deportations within the first year of Trump returning to the White House, although this is still below Trump's target.

This article is an exclusive piece by Observers Network. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7535764451758162486/

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