Trump team shrugs off deportation 'error' that could leave a man dead | Opinion

What’s worse than admitting a potentially deadly deportation mistake? Laughing it off.

You already know that Trump and his folks never own up mistakes. That ought to tell you the magnitude of admitting in court that the administration erroneously sent a man to El Salvador prison hell.

“This removal was an error,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in a statement to a federal judge about deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia under the Alien Enemies Act invoked by Trump.

Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland under protective immigration status, was on one of three flights to El Salvador in mid-March, using rarely invoked war powers.

Trump doesn't need war powers to deport people

Federal Judge James Boasberg stopped further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act pending review, which unleashed Trump’s fury. The president called for the impeachment of judges that rule against him, prompting a rare rebuke from U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

But back to Trump’s human trafficking. Yes, let’s call it that because it is.

Nobody denies that the president has the power to deport those living in the U.S. illegally. Does he need war powers to do it, though? Certainly not.

And, even worse, should Trump and his folks make up things or ignore court orders to put them behind bars here or send them to notorious prisons abroad and get away with it?

I say hell no.

He sent immigrants to El Salvador's worst prison

In 2019, an immigration judge deemed Abrego Garcia to be a “likely member of the MS-13,” according to various media reports.

Trump has more recently designated that gang as terrorists.

But Abrego Garcia contested those gang affiliation claims in 2019 and argued that he would be persecuted and tortured back home in El Salvador. A judge ordered that he couldn’t be deported to El Salvador, and thus he was released from ICE custody.

That made no difference to the Trump administration, which rounded him up in March and is now fighting Abrego Garcia’s legal claims against his imprisonment, saying the U.S. can’t do anything to bring him back because he’s now under El Salvador custody.

They even have the gall to argue that he’s not likely to be killed. What? You don’t have be a lawyer or legal expert to know that’s BS.

Trump made a deal with El Salvador to send deportees to its “mega prison” where the worst criminals are housed along with others who spend 23.5 hours a day in the harshest conditions.

Vance treats Abrego Garcia as less than human

What do you call actions of picking up people merely accused of a crime or just being in the U.S. illegally and turn them over to a foreign nation to do whatever it wants with them? Abrego Garcia happens to be Salvadoran, but Trump also sent Venezuelans to that prison.

That’s human trafficking at its worst.

I’m not naïve. I know that MAGA hails Trump’s worst instincts and actions against immigrants because, to them, these folks are less than human, not deserving the most basic rights. Vice President JD Vance even said as much.

“It’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize,” Vance wrote on X, formerly Twitter, responding to “Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau about the error.

What’s Vance smoking? Talk about ignoring basic facts. Who did Abrego Garcia “victimize?”

If he was such a horrible criminal, why not prosecute him here in the U.S. and put him behind bars here? After all, the U.S. has all the resources to prove such things, right?

Again, as president, Trump has the power to deport undocumented immigrants. He doesn’t need an excuse to do so or war powers to speed up the process.

But all of us should be terrified of a president and an administration that not only shrugs off basic human rights but blatantly makes things up against people.

We’ve seen this movie before where groups of people are targeted for political purposes. It never stops with the initial targets, and it never ends well.

Elvia Díaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @elviadiaz1.