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“Kilmar Abrego [Garcia], the migrant whose wrongful deportation to his native El Salvador made him a symbol of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, must remain in the United States through at least October, a judge said during a court hearing [last] Wednesday. The hearing before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland signaled that Abrego's legal battle is far from over, with his attorneys vowing to pursue multiple avenues to block the Trump administration's latest plan to deport him to Uganda. Xinis extended an earlier [order] that temporarily prohibited Abrego's removal from the continental United States while she considers a petition he filed seeking to block his deportation…
“The Trump administration's push to deport Abrego, 30, to an African country where he has no ties is the latest twist in a saga that began in March, when U.S. authorities accused him of being a gang member and sent him to an El Salvadoran prison despite an order from a U.S. immigration judge prohibiting his deportation to that country. Abrego was brought back in June to face criminal charges of transporting migrants living in the United States illegally. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have accused the administration of vindictive prosecution. He also has denied the administration's claims that he is a gang member.” Reuters
In addition to challenging his deportation, “[Abrego Garcia] is seeking to remain in the United States by renewing his bid for asylum. Lawyers for Abrego filed a motion reasserting his asylum claim in immigration court [last] Monday afternoon… Abrego last sought asylum in 2019 during immigration-court proceedings, but a judge denied his claim, saying he had waited too long after entering the United States to file it.” Politico
Here’s our previous coverage of Abrega Garcia. The Flip Side
The left opposes deporting Abrego Garcia, arguing that the allegations against him are unsupported by evidence.
“The fact that they’re trying to pressure him with this deportation to Uganda, a place that he’s never been and apparently the jail conditions over there are horrific—clearly they’re just trying to pressure him into taking a plea so they don’t have to come into court and prove the case that they said they could prove. They’re afraid to go to court. They’re afraid to have their case evaluated by a judge and a jury…
“If you go back to the beginning of all of this, the deportation was illegal… They trumped up these charges—pardon the pun—so they could bring him back and save face. But then they brought him back, and he’s like, OK, well, give me my day in court. Then they’re like, Geez, we don’t want to do that either, so let’s send him to a country where he’ll never be heard from again. That looks like what they’re trying to do.”
Glenn Ivey, New Republic
“Months after a federal judge ordered him returned to the U.S., he was brought back in June and immediately taken into criminal custody in Tennessee before he was once again ordered released, at which point he was swiftly put back into ICE custody and shuttled to a facility in Virginia. Over the course of a few months, Abrego Garcia has been in at least three immigration detention facilities, one criminal facility, and a foreign gulag…
“Since the beginning of Abrego Garcia’s ordeal, the government has been trying to make his case about essentially whatever will stick, flattening the immigration and criminal aspects into one sustained character attack. It attempted to justify his deportation by tarring him as a gang member, an accusation that was based on comically flimsy evidence and which the government never tried to escalate to proving in court…
“Per internal Department of Justice whistleblower emails, officials desperately cast about for scraps of evidence to paint him as a hardened MS-13 leader and basically struck out. After a federal judge ordered that he be brought back, the Justice Department devoted significant resources to retroactively drumming up charges over a three-year-old incident that police didn’t act on at the time, in which the government’s main witness, unlike Abergo Garcia, is a convicted felon.”
Felipe De La Hoz, Slate
“[Abrego Garcia] must be guilty because the Trump administration arrested him, and because they can do no wrong. He must be guilty because he is a migrant, and innocence and immigration are mutually exclusive. He must be guilty, too, because his case made them do something that they did not want to do: admit a mistake, face public pressure, reverse an action, and – worst of all – show weakness. And he must be guilty because he has become a symbol of all the immigrants they plan to deport.”
Moira Donegan, The Guardian
The right supports deporting Abrego Garcia, arguing that he has no justification for remaining in the US.
The right supports deporting Abrego Garcia, arguing that he has no justification for remaining in the US.
“It appears that [the asylum claim] is a stalling tactic, as well as a strategy by Abrego Garcia's attorneys to allow their client to eat his cake and have it too. The DoJ offered him deportation to Costa Rica as part of a plea deal to settle the trafficking case, where he would get convicted but essentially serve no time. Costa Rica had agreed to process Abrego Garcia as a legal immigrant and declared that they would not detain him despite a conviction and prison sentence in the US…
“The US wants that prison sentence in place in case Abrego Garcia re-enters the US illegally, at which point they can simply toss him into federal prison and then deport him at the end of that sentence. Abrego Garcia and his attorneys want to avoid that by refusing to accept the conviction. That speaks volumes about Abrego Garcia's future plans, and emphasizes why the DoJ and DHS want to make sure he's gone for good.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
“Two immigration judges found it credible that he was a member of MS-13, the vicious Salvadoran gang. Indeed, when he finally got around to claiming protection against deportation, a decade after arriving, one of his arguments was that he feared persecution by a rival gang. According to the Department of Homeland Security, [Abrego Garcia’s] wife filed for a restraining order against him for domestic violence – twice… [But] For progressives, no one is ever deportable…
“The executive branch has authority in immigration cases, not federal courts. But as with so much else in our novel era, activist judges are going beyond mere due process to invent ‘new process’ – in effect, to allow illegal aliens unlimited bites at the apple until they win… Either the rule of law is re-established when it comes to immigration, or any alien with sufficient NGO support can remain forever, whatever their background.”
Simon Hankinson, Fox News
“The administration’s immigration enforcement, focused on illegal border crossers like Abrego Garcia, is having far-reaching effects. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security reported that 1.6 million illegal immigrants had left the country in the seven months since President Donald Trump took office…
“That’s what enforcement of immigration law does; it has an effect beyond the specific people who are detained or deported. In the Biden years, allowing millions to cross illegally into the U.S. without consequence encouraged many more to do the same. Now, deporting even a small group of illegal border crossers is encouraging a large number of others to get right with the law and save themselves a lot of trouble in the process. Look for the Trump administration to keep it up.”
Byron York, Washington Examiner
A super rare, blue lobster escapes the dinner plate.
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