The test of American constitutional democracy is developing in an unlikely place: a dark prison system in Central America.
US President Donald Trump did many things in the second term, which were recognized authoritarian or illegaland he is dangerous Make more.
But there is one line that he did not cross, at least not yet. He did not deliberately oppose the court's order, crossing Rubikon into the constitutional land of Nobody, in which the principles do not apply.
This is the case that the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is more than a cloudy story about the banishness of one man in various Salvadorane prisons, including the infamous Anti-Gang Gulag object.
Much is not clear about man himself.
Court decision this week recognized allegations that Abrego Garcia is a low level Gang memberHonted by the history of allegations regarding home use. Or maybe he escaped from the gangs of his hometown of Salvador to build a life as a construction worker in Maryland with an American wife and child?
His alleged gang ties, a court decision This week he said: “Maybe, but maybe not.”
In this case, it is more clearly that it can open flood gates to the constitutional crisis under the rule of Trump, which many were afraid and anticipated.
The courts order administration to at least try to follow the law. In other words, try to recover Abry Garcia; submit relevant documents; And try to deport him again – but legally.
So far the response of the Trump band? General mockery. The administration was admonished by the lower courts and ridiculed them. The Supreme Court weighed, and now, for the first time, Trump may oppose the Supreme Court.
It is clearly enjoying this fight: instead of talking about massively unpopular tariffs, the Americans talk about migration again – a Popular problem For Trump.
This is happening6:25The presidents of the USA and the El Salvador “bother the nose” in the Supreme Court, says a lawyer
The United States Supreme Court upheld the judge's order that the Trump administration would facilitate the return of a man from Maryland, who was incorrectly deported to El Salvador, but no country seems to be interested in the house of Kilmar Abry Garcia. During a visit to the White House on Monday, the president of Salvador Nayib Bukele said: “How can I smuggle a terrorist to the United States?” This is happening, the host Nil Kӧksal talked to Nicole Hallett, director of the Immigrants Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
But members of the legal community and NO Just liberalsinsist, it is greater than migration or any single case, and goes beyond normal national policy.
“We are quickly approaching our first true moment of truth,” said former dean Yale Law School Harold Hongju Koh, a professor of constitutional law and legal advisor in the Department of State during the presidency of Obama.
“Will the Supreme Court allow him to escape with transparent fiction? If not, will Trump openly oppose a court order?” Koh wrote We -mail for CBC News. “Will the American society accept the shocking claim that Trump has the power to send innocent, such as Abry García – and even American citizens – to offshore Hellholes without even a fig leaf process?”
The lower court described the case as a stunning matter. In the decision submitted by the reagan appointed by Reagan, the court stated that some legal disputes were submitted. But not the one.
“It is not difficult at all,” said a three-person appeal court on Thursday in a unanimous decision.
“The government claims that the right to the abolition of the inhabitants of this country in foreign prisons without the appearance of a proper trial, which is the basis of our constitutional order,” we read in the decision.
“It should be shocking not only for judges, but for an intuitive sense of freedom that Americans … are still loved.”
Background
Here is a version of the history of Abry Garcia, told in court files.
In 2011 he joined the USA in 2011. He says he escaped from El Salvador because the street gang in the capital threatened his family. His mother Cecilia ran a company selling Pupusas or corn flour cake and was forced to pay money to protect the Barrio 18 gang.
When the fees increased, she was told that if she did not pay, one of her sons would have to join the gang or be killed. In panic, the family sent one son to the USA, where he became a citizen.
Then the gang began to ask about Abry Garcia – who escaped.
In 2019, he was arrested at the meeting place for daytime labours at Home Depot in Maryland. He was intended for deportation. He tried and failed to get asylum, but he won a rare suspension of the order of removal. This meant a pause of deportation to El Salvador due to the alleged risk of gang.
He married the American and they had a son who is non -verbal and autistic. He received full -time work as a metal employee, had no criminal registers and met the court conditions, appearing in the case of regular briefings with the authorities.
Suddenly, two months ago, he was detained by immigration authorities. His wife found out from online photos, a few days later that he was made to Salvador anti -terrorist prison.
She noticed him among a group of men shown on earth with their shaved hair and shoulders above their heads.
The federal lawyer admitted in court that the deportation was a mistake. The courts have now demanded that Trump bring Abry Garci back, or at least try.
But the administration rejected them. In fact, he says, there was no mistake. Even suspended Federal prosecutor who confessed to the mistake.
Trump's team
Many Trump officials and the president himself rejected the lack of proper trial.
“Do you think we will sit down, twist our hands, wondering if:” Oh, maybe we should spend this person, give her a little more time, give them a little opportunity to ask for his case? ” – Stephen Miller asked.
“So what? They will kidnap someone? A cut throat? They shoot to their heads and we say:” At least an illegal alien received the right trial. ” They are illegally here.
Miller blamed the media for focusing on this matter and said that he regretted that they would not spend more time reporting murders by unlawful migrants; The White House emphasized one such case, inviting a funeral mother to the media briefing room.
Trump's team then took a rare step to release case files questioning the innocence of Abry Garcia. One claimed that after the arrest in 2019 he had symbols related to gangs; He was with two known criminals; And that a reliable guide identified him as “Chequeo”-the other degree of chapter MS-13. The file also claimed that its nickname gang was “chele”.
The administration also published two separate Police reportsComplex on various occasions, where his wife accused him of a battery – for a blow and outline. He even published Old police report Where after the routine stopping of the movement, the officer stated that he could be involved in smuggling people.
But Abrego Garcia was never accused of crime. His lawyers also call the gang's allegation, by one source, illogical, because he was accused of belonging to the chapter of the New York gang, but he ever lived in Maryland.
President of Salvado Forewan Nayib Bukele in Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump, on Monday he asked about the return of Kilmar Abry Garcia, a resident of Maryland, who admitted that court applications in the USA were deported in administrative errors. Bukele rejected this question as “ridiculous” and suggested that he would not slow down Garcia, a Salvador citizen who described Bukele without evidence as a “terrorist” in this country.
Next: The moment of truth
The lower court ordered Abry Garcia to return and received the appropriate trial, and wants the sworn testimony of administrative officials until April 23, explaining why they have not applied so far.
The Supreme Court did not go that far. He said that the administration must try to “facilitate” his return and show how she tried. He also asked the lower court to adapt its instructions.
The final test will take place when the courts provides new instructions and the way Trump will react to them.
The initial characters are not promising. The administration was constantly mistakenly assessed the first decision of the Supreme Court, calling it a decision of 9-0 conducive to Trump.
He also raised his hands, saying that with all these procedures it is impossible to deport millions of migrants unlawful. But it's not about millions of cases: it's about 1000 people a year He usually granted a suspension status like Abry Garcia.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen met directly with a man from Maryland, incorrectly deported to El Salvador on charges of being in a brutal MS-13 gang. Trump's administration refuses to restore him despite court orders.
The president of Salvador joined the mockery. Nayib Bukele confessed that he was powerless to put Abry Garcia on a plane to the USA
He said that Abrego Garcia was not going anywhere and trolled was democratic senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited the prisoner in Salvadorclaiming that they were both “sipping margarines. “Van Hollen denied that they drank alcohol and claimed that Bukele people placed glasses on the table to stage photos.
In one of his numerous tweets, Bukele described it as a game in chess.
But this is not a game. This is a dead issue for the Constitutional Republic. In its decision this week, the fourth District Court practically begged the government to respect the law. He called this behavior unlawful.
“(Administration) can be successful in the weakening of the courts, but with time history won the tragic gap between what was and everything that could be, and the law will sign his epitaph over time,” said the ruling.
“However, we stick to the hope that it is not naive to believe that our good brothers in the executive ward perceive the rule of law as necessary for the American ethos. This matter presents their unique chance to recognize this value and recall the best that is in us, although there is still time.”
