Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08) joined legal experts and advocates in condemning the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia by the Trump administration. Raskin’s is among a growing chorus of voices calling for his return to the US.
The case has become the focal point of what many are now calling a constitutional crisis.
“The claim that the US can’t do anything in this situation is farcical,” said Raskin, speaking during an April 16 press conference organized by America’s Voice. “President Trump must immediately direct its agents in these cases of false imprisonment—the government of El Salvador—to release Abrego Garcia from their torturer’s prison, restore his due process rights, and return him to his loved ones in the United States.”
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran who had been living in Maryland and is married to a U.S. citizen, was apprehended by US immigration officials in mid-March and deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega prison despite earlier court orders barring such actions.
Administration officials initially admitted Abrego Garcia’s deportation was the result of an “administrative error,” but now defend the move, and argue that the U.S. has no power in the matter because he’s now in El Salvador. They have also argued over the exact application of the court’s order to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
On Thursday Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador’s capital after initially being denied entry to the prison. In a statement Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described his visit as a “humanitarian request” aimed at ensuring Abrego Garcia’s well being.
Human rights advocates have long denounced El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, for what they say are widespread violations, including overcrowding and reports of torture, at the prison where Abrego Garcia is being held.
His case has raised concerns over the subversion of due process laws that extend to non-citizens, something that Rep. Raskin says should also alarm US citizens.
“We are discovering now why “due process” are the two most beautiful words in the English language,” Raskin said. “Without due process anything can happen to anybody under a government that is willing to act in arbitrary and political and subversive ways. If the rights of non-citizens are not secure then the rights of citizens are not secure.”
“The hypocrisy of now taking the rhetoric from ‘we made a mistake’ to ‘he’s a terrorist,’ is a bold faced lie,” said David Leopold, Chair of the Immigration Practice at UB Greensfelder LLC and America’s Voice Legal Advisor.
“The Trump administration granted him lawful status in the US and work permit after fully vetting him,” Leopold continued. “The Trump administration’s brazen defiance of multiple court rulings to return Abrego Garcia to the US should terrify every American. The Trump administration is engaged in an all-out assault on the rule of law which threatens the civil liberties of every American.”
In 2019, Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE on suspicion of gang affiliations. He and his attorneys denied any gang affiliation and he was never charged with a related crime. A judge in immigration court granted Abrego Garcia withholding from removal to El Salvador, meaning he could not be moved there, affirming his contention that he has a “well founded fear of future persecution” by local gangs.
Abrego Garcia was working as a sheetmetal apprentice when he was arrested again last month. In response to a lawsuit seeking Abrego Garcia’s return, the Trump administration writes in a filing that “ICE was aware of his protection from removal” to his home country but he “was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.”
Baher Azmy, legal director with the Center for Constitutional Rights, did not downplay the serious threat of a constitutional crisis. He says that by issuing an “insufficiently direct” order, stressing the vagueness of the word “facilitate,” the Supreme Court created an opening for the administration’s lawyers to exploit.
“The current threats to our constitutional separation of powers were no doubt buoyed by the prior failure of the coordinate branches of government to reign Trump in, including the Supreme Court’s granting of impunity for Trump’s serial illegality and the cowardice of congressional Republicans who twice acquitted him.”
Azmy added the administration is testing the bounds of the rule of law by disobeying court orders they disagree with.
“The normalization of this behavior is fueling the administration’s ongoing assault on democracy,” he said. “To stand up to his overreach we need political leadership and we need mass activation. If we want to live in a democracy, we need to do all we can to preserve it.”
