How far will a government go to assert a policy that indiscriminately criminalizes anyone who might be an undocumented immigrant? The Trump administration is certainly making one man the focal point of its horrific immigration policies in an effort to show the government can take anyone at any time and send them anywhere.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been arrested three times in the past six months, with each prompting serious questions about the Trump administration's crackdown on supposed illegal immigrants.Â
Abrego Garcia, who lives in Maryland and is married to an American citizen, was detained by ICE in March by mistake and, with several others rounded up in sweeps that offered no due process, was flown out of the country to the brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador.Â
When the error was discovered, the Trump administration and even President Donald Trump himself claimed that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, a notorious gang, as a way to try and justify the deportation. Eventually, Abrego Garcia, who denied any gang affiliation, was returned to the U.S., where he was immediately arrested again and charged with human smuggling linked to a traffic stop in Tennessee three years ago. Abrego Garcia wasn't arrested during that traffic stop, and his attorneys have argued the charges are a vindictive act of the government because Abrego Garcia successfully fought his illegal deportation. Â
He was finally released from a Florida prison last week and returned to his Maryland home, only to be detained yet again Monday, as he went to an ICE field office in Baltimore for a routine check in. The Trump administration, as of Monday, said it plans to deport Abrego Garicia to Uganda, of all places, because he refused to plead guilty in the human smuggling case, which is again a highly questionable tactic. However, the administration cannot deport Abrego Garcia for at least 72 hours. A hearing Wednesday afternoon is expected to determine his fate.Â
None of this should've ever happened, and the lengths the Trump administration is going to in what looks like a pretty open effort to punish someone because of the administration's own mistake is truly alarming. It sends the message that this administration will keep coming after anyone deemed deportable, regardless of whether it's legal and certainly with no compunction about what is right. If the administration is made to look foolish or incompetent, its agents will simply attempt to brutalize those who exposed their flaws that much more.Â
