Quick Hitter: The Rule of Law is Dead in the United States
“The question is preposterous,” Bukele said. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
With that sentence, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele completed the circuit that ended the rule of law in the United States. By claiming that the idea of sending wrongly imprisoned Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “preposterous” he has given the Trump administration exactly what they want… cover to ignore a unanimous Supreme Court ruling.
As if that wasn’t enough, Trump admitted that he would like to send American citizens to CECOT, the El Salvadoran torture prison where this administration has already sent nearly 300 people without a shred of due process, most with absolutely no criminal record at all. Yeah, Trump says that he would only send “violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in”, but this administration said the same thing about who they were going to focus on deporting on Day One. Then they started rounding up kids at elementary schools, or pulling mothers out of their cars in front of their young daughters.
I don’t have any deep analysis here, nor do I have any snarky quips. This administration is blatantly laying the foundation to silence any critics by spiriting them away to a foreign country with no hope of return. We may still see some court machinations, but the various comments, coupled with the outstanding arrogance of Trump and his top advisors related to this matter, tell us all we need to know. They are not going to bring a single man back from that prison. For all we know, Garcia may be dead, as may any or all of the others that were kidnapped and trafficked to El Salvador. This should terrify every single person in this country, and the fact that so many people either have no idea what happened today or don’t care1 speaks volumes as to where we are, and where it appears that we are going, as a nation.
Take Care and Stay Strong, Together. We are all we’ve got.
Or even worse, want this to happen to those they disagree with.