Trump illegally deported over 200 immigrants to an El Salvador concentration camp on March 15th, and at least 179 of them had no criminal record and were denied due process. He has proposed sending American citizens to the same place.
On Monday, Donald Trump is hosting El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who is a dictator ruling his country using emergency powers and someone Trump wants to emulate. This ominous visit occurs at a time when Trump is ignoring a Supreme Court ruling that directed him to return one of the over 200 immigrants Trump illegally deported to a notorious concentration camp in El Salvador by misusing a 1798 war powers act. At least 179 of the men sent to CECOT prison on March 15th have no criminal record and were stripped of both their due process rights and human dignity. Trump has already suggested doing the same to American citizens.
The timing of this visit is as purposeful as the cruelty Trump inflicted on the migrants he deported to the concentration camp located in the country his guest runs. The message to the American people is Trump can do what he wants while he rubs his contempt for the rule of law in our faces. And Americans should be very concerned about their own constitutional rights. Trump is essentially treating those he illegally deported to the El Salvador concentration camp like they are in a legal black hole where they are dead to constitutional rights.
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Trump is even refusing to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland husband and father of three from El Salvador who had protected legal status in the United States since 2019. Last week, the Supreme Court ordered Kilmar's return and backed up a lower court's ruling that expressed outraged at how due process rights were stripped away from him. Even the government's own lawyers have admitted Kilmar was deported due to an "administrative error." Yet instead of making it right, Trump is refusing to admit fault and pretending it is impossible to bring Kilmar back.
This is despite the fact El Salvador is being paid by the United States to incarcerate these men and there is essentially a contract. It should be easy to get any or all of the men back to the United States for fair and open hearings about their legal status, and the latter should be done. This is because the more we learn about the men trapped in this foreign concentration camp, the more violations of the law we find.
RELATED : Gay Asylum Seeker One of Many Illegally Sent to Concentration Camp by Trump
If Kilmar was the only victim of Trump, that would be bad enough, but he isn't. There are at least 179 men with no criminal record being held in the same concentration camp and the stories that are coming out should shock anyone with a conscience who respects the rule of law. One horror story involves a gay Venezuelan makeup artist named Andry José Hernández Romero, who was legally seeking asylum and was disappeared to the concentration camp in El Salvador before his asylum hearing. The government claimed he was a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua with no evidence and solely because Andry has tattoos.
Many other Venezuelan immigrants were sent to the same prison because of having tattoos, including Neri Alvarado Borge who has an autism awareness tattoo to honor his brother. While Trump claims all of these men were sent to a concentration camp in a foreign country to "eradicate terrorist organizations and build a future of prosperity," the facts tell quite a different story. The reality is Trump has decided to terrorize a vulnerable, non-criminal population to send a message to anyone who would think of opposing him in the future. He is already testing the waters on the idea of sending American citizens to the same concentration camp.
This is exactly what Rolling Stone reported yesterday:
Trump said last weekend he would “love” to send American criminals there — and would even be “honored” to, depending on “what the law says.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this week that the president has discussed this idea privately, too, adding he would only do this “if it’s legal.”
The plan would be to expatriate and/or denaturalize American citizens just accused of crimes and take away their due process in the same manner. This is blatantly illegal under both American and international law. Disturbingly, Trump has shown he does not care about the law, and Congress and the courts have been unable or unwilling to serve as an effective check on him when he violates the law. The monster the Supreme Court created with its wide-ranging immunity ruling last year is on the loose and enthusiastically dismantling American democracy while the other two branches of government are impotent or willfully complicit.
Trump is hosting President Nayib Bukele to show Americans he is committed to continuing violating the law and the personal liberties of those living in the United States. He wants America to be more like El Salvador and he wants to be a dictator like Bukele. And the most concerning thing about it all is Trump is winning.