Kilmar Abrego Garcia No Longer in CECOT

     Senator Chris Van Hollen's efforts in El Salvador, one of the many places in the world where human rights, and humans, go to die, is the latest example of the old adage that if you punch Nazis enough times, they will fold faster than a dropped accordion.

     Bottom line: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is no longer in CECOT. This doesn't mean he's free. But he's been transferred to a facility that's not CECOT.

     Sen. Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador a few days ago and demanded to meet with Garcia. At first, the government wouldn't allow that or even give Van Hollen a chance to speak with him over the telephone or to even enter the prison. Then Van Hollen gave a press conference that essentially tore the Trump administration a new one.

     Before anyone knew it, pictures of Van Hollen speaking with Garcia began circulating all over the internet. Then the senator revealed something astounding: Kilmar Abrego Garcia told him he was no longer being held in the CECOT gulag and had been transferred to someplace less horrible.

     Garcia and his family has Van Hollen to thank for this. Van Hollen was the only US Democratic lawmaker to travel to El Salvador and to put pressure on their NeoNazi government. At around the same time Van Hollen was in San Salvador, a delegation of right wing lawmakers also traveled to the country and even posed for pictures in front of the inmates in their cells and putting them up on their social media accounts. They were allowed into the notorious prison. Van Hollen wasn't.

     Not only is this an extraordinary turnaround, one can't ignore the timing of it all. 

 

     Just a couple of hours ago, Trump assembled a few Cabinet members as human scenery behind him and delivered a masterclass in smearing and lying. After telling Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to grab a piece of paper, he then fumbled and bumbled his through it, claiming Garcia was a member of MS13 (he's not- He belongs to a union) and a terrorist (he's not) and even a trotted out an old protective order from four years ago that Garcia's wife had taken out on him (they've since gone to counseling) in order to justify deporting him to a banana republic dictatorship.

     By this time, Trump must have known that Garcia had been released from CECOT and transferred to another facility because the pictures of Van Hollen speaking with Garcia in what appeared to be a cafeteria over a cup of coffee had already begun making the rounds.

     Basically, Trump is paying a swarthier version of Hitler to incarcerate an inmate he no longer has.

     Bloomberg reported recently that up to 90% of the people we'd kidnapped and renditioned to El Salvador's torture palace were not affiliated with any gangs whether it was Tren de Aragua or MS13 or had any criminal records. Let's do a fact check:

     Again, the closest that Garcia has come to joining a street gang was when he joined a labor union through his job. He has no criminal record. The bullshit deportation order was based on a pack of lies. And whatever went on between he and his wife four years ago certainly doesn't give any administration the right to deport him to a foreign gulag. If that were true, Trump would also have to deport all other woman-beating psychopaths he's favored over the years. He was here under protected status when he proved that his family was in danger from gang activity and he was even given a work permit. And when the deportation was being challenged in court, the lawyers for the administration confessed that he was arrested and detained by ICE due to an "administrative error", which alone ought to have set him free.

     Instead, the administration doubled, tripled and quadrupled down and rushed him out of the country hours after the judge ordered him and other illegally detained people to be set free. Then they had the nerve to say the judge no longer had jurisdiction because Garcia was already in El Salvador. When the judge demanded information, they essentially stonewalled him and refused to hand it over.

      That Judge, James Boasberg, had found two days ago that he had grounds to prosecute Trump's lawyers for contempt of court and Judge Paula Xinis isn't too far behind. Just yesterday, Judge Xinis said she'd never issued a criminal citation in nearly 20 years on the bench but she's weighing it now. Naturally, this has resulted in the typical and predictable puerile name-calling from the Nazis in Trump's Fourth Reich. Said Seattle PI:

     "All this happened as administration officials made public statements disparaging the judges. Trump aide Stephen Miller described Xinis as a “Marxist judge” who “now thinks she’s president of El Salvador.” President Donald Trump had earlier called Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic Judge” in a social media post and demanded his impeachment."

      For good measure, Trump also piled on Van Hollen, claiming he was (Oh, the irony) "begging for attention."

      Folks, at the heart of this fascist disappearing of brown people is due process. And, not only that, what this administration has done to Garcia is a violation of his fourth (illegal search and seizure), sixth (due process) and potentially 14th amendment (citizenship) rights. None of those people on those flights that Judge Boasberg had ordered grounded or turned around ever saw the inside of a courtroom let alone access to a lawyer. And El Salvador's dictator, President Bukele, happily accepted them because Trump paid him, regardless of their legal status or criminal records or lack thereof.

     Garcia getting out of CECOT was a huge victory and it showed that if the right people push back hard enough, even Nazis will quickly develop an appreciation for optics. The next step is to get Garcia home, as well as all the other men on those flights who were also illegally detained, arrested and renditioned.