Yep. Even illegal aliens have rights under the Constitution, albeit not all of the ones recognized for citizens.
We found that undocumented immigrants do have constitutional rights -- but not all of the rights of citizens. (We have previously fact-checked a claim about whether unlawful presence in the United States is not a crime, a claim we ruled Mostly True.)
Some rights, but not all
A spokeswoman for the Florida Immigrant Coalition pointed to an article by an author of immigration books about constitutional protections for undocumented immigrants.
We interviewed several legal scholars who agreed that undocumented immigrants have many constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, and if arrested, a right to a Miranda warning.
"There is no question that all persons in the United States including unauthorized migrants enjoy the protections of the Constitution," said Gabriel (Jack) Chin, law professor at University of California-Davis. "There is no debate about that among legal scholars."
The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment protects everyone from deprivation of life, liberty or property without due process of law, Chin said.
There have been several court decisions dating back more than a century that outline the rights of undocumented immigrants.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas vs. Davis (2001) that "once an alien enters the country, the legal circumstance changes, for the due process clause applies to all persons within the United States."
In a Texas case, Plyler vs. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that non-citizen children must get a free K-12 education.
But undocumented immigrants don’t share all of the rights held by citizens -- for example, they can’t vote in state and national elections.
And Fordham law professor Jennifer Gordon said that some undocumented immigrants get almost no due process in removal proceedings.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/s...ocumented-immigrants-have-constitutional-rig/
