Trump must abide by the law in Garcia case

The question we must each ask ourselves is, do you want to live in a nation ruled by laws, or do you want to live under a dictator?

The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia makes it plain. Garcia has no criminal record and a judge declared that he could not be deported to El Salvador due to credible fears of persecution from the gangs he originally fled.

He is gainfully employed and married to an American citizen. He is not a terrorist. The only “evidence” against him is a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived.

Because he was denied due process, the Trump Administration never had to present any evidence to support its claims. No fewer than three Trump Administration officials admitted that the deportation was an error.

The Supreme Court ruled the U.S. must facilitate return of Garcia from El Salvador.

On live television, Trump and his aides declared that they wouldn’t abide by the Supreme Court ruling.

This assault on our Constitution is a red line that we must not cross as a nation. As historian Timothy Snyder points out, “If citizens endorse the idea that people named by authorities as ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’ have no right to due process, then they are accepting that they themselves have no right to due process. It is due process, and due process alone, that allows you to demonstrate that you are a citizen. Without it, the masked men in the black vans can simply claim that you are a foreign terrorist and disappear you.”

Janet McDonnell

Arlington Heights