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You don’t have to care about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the unlucky face of President Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade, to be outraged at the twisted way our government has treated him and by the way federal officials have personally attacked this 35-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, husband of an American citizen, and yes, Maryland father of three.
They’ve already “accidentally” deported Abrego Garcia once, to El Salvador’s notorious maximum security prison, in blatant disregard of a judge’s very specific order that he not be removed.
After the Supreme Court ruled he’d been deported illegally and put pressure on the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador, the feds reluctantly brought him back to the U.S., then promptly rearrested him for allegedly taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants across the country.
Now the feds are threatening to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda if he doesn’t plead guilty to human smuggling charges.
The smuggling charges against him stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County, Tenn. He was pulled over for speeding and was found to be driving with an expired license. Nine men were in his van, fellow construction workers, he claimed, that he was transporting between jobs. The government says that was a cover story, and that in fact, Abrego Garcia was transporting newly arrived immigrants who had illegally crossed the border, from Texas to Maryland. Troopers let him go with a warning.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has called Abrego Garcia “a foreign terrorist” who was “engaged in human trafficking.” Which is — big surprise — a blatant lie.
Smuggling is a different, and much less serious, crime than human trafficking. Human smuggling, according to U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, involves the provision of a service to a willing customer. Human trafficking involves exploiting people for forced labor or commercial sex. You know — like what President Trump’s old buddy Jeffrey Epstein was alleged to have done to teenage girls. It’s the crime for which Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.
By contrast, Abrego Garcia has no criminal record and until now, has not been charged with any crime. That has not stopped Trump administration officials from trying to turn him into Public Enemy No. 1. Instead, he has become Exhibit A in their relentless crusade against immigrants.
They are piling on this man because he makes them look as vindictive and callous as they actually are.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller practically foams at the mouth when talking about Abrego Garcia, calling him a “violent terrorist” and “a clear and present danger to the American people.”
Vice President JD Vance called him a “convicted MS-13 gang member.” (He is not.)
They have accused Abrego Garcia of being part of MS-13 because when he was picked up for “loitering” at a Maryland Home Depot in 2019 (where he was looking for day work), he wore a Chicago Bulls hat, an alleged signifier of gang involvement.
At his bond hearing, the judge granted Abrego Garcia “withholding of removal status,” which meant he could not be deported to El Salvador, because of his “well-founded fear of future persecution” from gangs there. Numerous court documents say that he left El Salvador at age 16 to get away from the gangs that were threatening his family and extorting his mother’s pupusa business, forcing the family to move at least twice.
In March, as part of the Trump crackdown on immigrants, Abrego Garcia was pulled over and arrested in Baltimore, launching the absurd melodrama in which he now unwittingly stars.
In April, after Abrego Garcia was illegally deported to El Salvador, Trump showed off a digitally altered photograph of what he claimed was Abrego Garcia’s hand with MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who would rather shoot her pets than train them, called him “a violent criminal.”
“He doesn’t belong here,” tweeted the Department of Homeland Security. “He won’t be staying here. America is a safer nation without this MS-13 gangbanger in it. Good riddance.”
On Wednesday, Abrego Garcia asked a judge to grant him asylum, which, as the New York Times reported, “opens up a new legal avenue for him to remain in the United States.” It’s quite possible that he will end up being deported again, and has said he would prefer to be sent to Costa Rica if it comes to that. In a court filing, he said he fears that if he were to be sent to Uganda, the government there, unconstrained by any American judge’s orders, would send him back to El Salvador.
The Trump administration’s jihad against immigrants, particularly those with brown skin, is as un-American as it is sickening. Though the president promised to deport violent criminals, it’s clear that no immigrant in this country is safe from his racist wrath.
Traitors attack the Capitol, brutally assault police officers, threaten to hang the vice president, trash the halls of Congress and violently try to overturn the results of a free and fair election. They have received nothing but love and pardons from Trump.
But those who cross the border for a better, safer life? Those who come to this nation of immigrants to pick our crops, build our homes, clean our hotel rooms? They get nothing but the president’s hatred.
Bluesky: @rabcarian
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Ideas expressed in the piece
The author characterizes the government’s treatment of Abrego Garcia as fundamentally unjust and “twisted,” emphasizing that he was illegally deported to El Salvador’s maximum security prison in direct violation of a judge’s order that specifically prohibited his removal[1].
The piece argues that federal officials have deliberately mischaracterized the nature of the charges against Abrego Garcia, pointing out that smuggling is “a different, and much less serious, crime than human trafficking” and criticizing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for falsely calling him “a foreign terrorist” engaged in “human trafficking.”
The author contends that Trump administration officials, including Stephen Miller and JD Vance, have made demonstrably false statements about Abrego Garcia, noting that he has no criminal record and has not been a convicted MS-13 gang member as claimed.
The column presents the MS-13 allegations as baseless, citing that the evidence consists merely of wearing a Chicago Bulls hat while seeking day work at a Home Depot, and argues that he legitimately fled El Salvador at age 16 to escape gang persecution that threatened his family.
The author frames this case as emblematic of broader “racist wrath” against immigrants with “brown skin,” contrasting the harsh treatment of immigrants with Trump’s pardons for January 6th defendants who “attack the Capitol” and “brutally assault police officers.”
Different views on the topic
Government officials maintain that Abrego Garcia was involved in human smuggling operations, arguing that his transportation of nine men in his van during a 2022 traffic stop was not legitimate construction work but rather part of a conspiracy to transport newly arrived immigrants who had illegally crossed the border from Texas to Maryland[1].
The Trump administration has characterized Abrego Garcia as a security threat, with officials describing him as having “purported membership in MS-13” and justifying the initial deportation based on the existence of a removal order and alleged gang connections[1].
Immigration enforcement officials argue that since Abrego Garcia cannot be legally deported to El Salvador due to the judicial withholding order, they have the authority to remove him to any country that will accept him, including Uganda, as part of standard immigration enforcement procedures[1][2].
The government attempted to resolve the case through a plea agreement that would have allowed Abrego Garcia to accept deportation to Costa Rica, suggesting this represented a reasonable compromise that he rejected[2].
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