Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge long ago recognized that to be a U.S. citizen is to have “a right no less precious than life or liberty.” One could assume that U.S. citizenship would offer an impenetrable defense against President Donald Trump's deportation dragnet, but that is wishful thinking.

Since June 2017, I have worked as an immigration lawyer at the Legal Aid Society in New York City. In 10 months, I've represented 25 people detained by ICE, and six of those clients had claims to U.S. citizenship.

Detention of a citizen for immigration purposes is a clear deprivation of constitutional rights, but immigration enforcement lacks many crucial procedural protections. Consequently, U.S. citizens are frequently ensnared in indiscriminate deportation efforts.

People appear every day in immigration court fearing death if deported. Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks characterized removal proceedings as “death penalty cases heard in traffic court settings.” Despite the life or death consequences, people facing deportation have no right to an attorney nor to a speedy trial.

Not knowing what is going on, or when you'll see a judge, has a coercive impact. Several of my clients were detained for months before a first hearing. This prolonged wait crushes the will to fight deportation.

Inevitably, detainees — including U.S. citizens — accept deportation just to get out of the misery of detention.

This almost happened to my client, James Busse, as detailed in Steve Coll's March 21 New Yorker article, When ICE Tries to Deport Americans, Who Defends Them?

James was detained for 62 days before getting his first appearance in court. At that stage, he was completely defeated despite knowing that he was a citizen. A colleague and I pleaded with James for hours to let us fight for him.

He eventually relented, and we obtained the proof that he derived citizenship.

But that did not stop ICE's efforts to deport him, and an immigration judge hastily determined James was removable.

Part of the problem here was the speed and lack of deliberation with which that decision was made. But this is an unavoidable consequence of a system not structured to be independent.

The immigration courts are administrative agencies within the Department of Justice. The prosecutors in immigration court are ICE attorneys, also members of the executive branch. The independence of our judicial systems are typically ensured by separation of powers among the three branches of government.

When both the attorney general and President Trump have articulated such persistent hostility towards immigrants, the lack of independence of the immigration courts threatens fairness and due process.

To the extent we allow the further weakening of procedural protections, sacrificing noncitizens without clout to political expediency, more U.S. citizens will be caught up in deportation proceedings, or in immigration detention. This erosion of respect for due process rights and fairness and the lack of timely recourse within the deportation process, is often unlawful.

In most of the cases involving claims to citizenship that I have worked on, the only way to slow ICE's efforts has been to seek the help of the judicial branch in the federal courts.

With James Busse, Federal District Court Judge Jesse Furman said that efforts to deport a U.S. citizen were “outrageous” and only after federal judicial oversight did ICE relent trying to deport him. District Judge Analisa Torres, in a separate case, stated that the government's lack of concern for the over 80-day immigration detention of a person credibly claiming citizenship was “so mystifying that it practically shocks the conscience.”

It does shock the conscience.

If the existence of immigration enforcement efforts that include separating families to deter people fleeing persecution, detaining pregnant women despite known risks to mother and child, targeting of immigration activists or manufacturing gang allegations to rip minor children away from their families is not shocking, the serious deprivations of the rights of fellow citizens should at least cause some concern.

Our immigration system is dysfunctional.The system needs to provide a right to counsel. No American legal system as complex and with as harsh consequences forces toddlers to face off unrepresented against trained government attorneys. It should also be independent — having prosecutor and adjudicator within the same branch of government is not conducive to fairness. The norms and due process rights that can make the immigration courts function need to be addressed, not just to protect American values, but to protect life and liberty for everyone.

James Busse filed a damages claim against the Department of Homeland Security on March 29. To the extent the threat of jailing fellow U.S. citizens and undermining American values is not sufficient to question current immigration enforcement efforts, hopefully financial consequences can convince enough others that we must abandon this un-American effort.

Gregory Copeland is a staff attorney in the Immigration Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society.