Is Kilmar Abrego García a good person? I don't know.
In 2021, his wife requested and received a protection order against him after she alleged domestic violence; she said last week that their marriage was strengthened after they worked through that low point and that Abrego García “has always been a couple and loving father.”
The government has affirmed that it is a member of a truly atrocious criminal gang, MS-13. If that were true, since I was illegally in the United States, it would have no problem to deport it, although it may not be a prison that our own state department condemned. We will return to that.
The Trump administration, for its own admission, mistakenly deported Abrego García challenging a court order to a saving prison. A judge had previously granted Abrego García's request not to be deported to his native El Salvador, because he feared for his safety. No one said he could not be deported elsewhere.
On the other hand, is Abrego García a vicious terrorist or criminal, as the administration affirms? I don't know either. Is it a MS-13 member? When the president sought to support that statement, he Posted an image managed of the tattoos of the hand of Abrego García to which the characters “MS13” had been digitally added.
The Trump administration has not offered evidence, in the court or on the outside, that Abrego García is guilty of violent crimes (except for the accusations that he abused his wife, and never faced charges for those statements). Originally he was arrested for “loungeing.” Andrew McCarthy, former federal prosecutor and prominent conservative legal analyst, wrote For the national review that “the procedures in the lower courts have shown that, to date, the evidence of the government that links Abrego García to MS-13 is Gossamer thin.”
As for the position of being a terrorist, this is … misleading. Trump has thrown war powers to frustrate what he incessantly calls an “invasion.” His administration has invoked the alien enemies law of 1798 as a way of omitting what he considers legal and constitutional undulations in search of deporting illegal immigrants who consider “terrorists.” Therefore, the administration can now apply that label without much rigor of objectives, if there is any.
MS-13 and Aragua Train, another gang that the Administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, are terrible. But the argument that they fulfill anything except a politically convenient definition of terrorist organizations is weak.
Much of the political argument about Abrego García is what legal scholars could call “stupid.” The Trump administration and its supporters are inclined to paint Abrego García as a vile and dangerous terrorist. Many Democrats, outraged by Trump's methods, prefer benign descriptions such as “Kilmar Abrego García is an innocent man and the father of three children,” as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said.
This frame, “Abrego García innocent and well” in front of “Abrego García guilty and bad”, is what is so stupid. None of the relevant legal and constitutional problems have something to do with whether this individual is good (or a father). By insisting that he is an innocent man, the Democrats imply that if he were not innocent, what the Trump administration has done would be unleashed.
The relevant questions are whether the administration has the power to avoid due process, a right conferred even to illegal immigrants, and if you have to try to remedy the mistake he made when sending Abrego García to a foreign prison.
The administration has hired the authoritarian Salvadoran government to take away the “terrorists” of our hands, but Trump's officials also claim that they have no power to recover anyone who is sent by mistake there. The judges, including the nine in the Supreme Court, think that this is problematic, because it is problematic.
The idea that the government can simply say that people on American soil, which may include American citizens or legal residents, are criminals or terrorists who are completely against our legal system. The government has a wide authority to deport illegal immigrants. Also has the authority to put convicted Criminals in any prison that he considers appropriate. He has no authority to put people in prison without proveing first, In court – who are accusing the right person and then condemning them for a crime.
If the error snatched you for ICE, you would want to have the opportunity to show that they obtained the wrong person. That right goes by Habeas Corpus, which has been a cornerstone of the Anglo -American law and the heart of due process for centuries. Administration does not seem Know this – either careful.
The Constitution is designed to limit the power of the abusive government. That is the only relevant problem here. Consider Ernesto Arturo Miranda. He was a really horrible person. But what? His case gave us the “rights of Miranda” that are read to the suspects after the arrest. The only way to ensure that innocent people obtain such protections is to ensure that everyone obtains them.
@Jonahdispch
