So much is happening at once, and I regret I can only focus on one issue at a time without being overwhelmed. So here we go — the constitutional impasse between Trump and the courts is getting more intense. For example, this just happened:
D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for defying his order last month to turn planes around that were removing people to El Salvador under an Alien Enemies Act invocation.
In a Wednesday order, Boasberg gave the government a deadline of April 23 either to comply with his initial order and thereby purge the contempt or, alternatively, identify members of the administration who should be subject to individual sanctions for their role.
In doing so, Boasberg seems to be leveraging the threat of criminal contempt of court to secure the return of the more than 100 Venezuelan nationals imprisoned in El Salvador for the last month without due process.
“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the opinion reads.
And U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has launched an inquiry into the Trump administration’s refusal to seek the return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Regarding the case of Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration is digging in its heels and refusing to budge in spite of the Supreme Court decision that more or less said Abrego Garcia must be retrieved. Our so-called “attorney general” flat-out said, “He is not coming back to our country. President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story.” See also Trump Admin’s New Defense For Accidentally Sending Abrego Garcia To Salvadoran Torture Camp: We Meant To Do That at Techdirt.
The Trump administration has settled on a terrifying new legal theory: they can declare anyone a “terrorist,” ship them to an offshore torture camp without due process, and courts can do nothing about it because it’s “foreign affairs.” This isn’t speculation — it’s the actual argument they’re making to justify their “accidental” trafficking of Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s CECOT facility.
After initially admitting in court this was an “administrative error,” the administration has pivoted to an even more disturbing stance: they meant to do it all along, and they can do it to anyone. And they’ll just fucking lie about everything to pretend this is all perfectly normal and acceptable.
Well, yeah, pretty much. “Homegrowns are next” to go to El Salvador, Trump said just the other day. He thinks can declare anyone a violent criminal and make them disappear, without that pesky due process thing. In Abrego Garcia’s case the MAGAts are continuing to insist he’s a gang member, criminal, and terrorist, even though they have no evidence. See Greg Sargent, Trump’s Case Against Man Deported in “Error” Just Took Another Big Hit at The New Republic. And see also The Trump Admin’s Lies About Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Debunked at Rolling Stone. The bit of hearsay evidence that Abrego Garcia was a gang member has been thoroughly discredited, and he has no criminal record in either the U.S. or El Salvador. And he certainly hasn’t been connected to terrorism.
Jamelle Bouie at the New York Times:
The Trump administration believes it can send anyone it wants, without due process or future legal recourse, to rot in a foreign prison. …
…More than a constitutional crisis, this is a fundamentally tyrannical assertion of illegitimate power. To claim the authority to remand any American, citizen or otherwise, to a distant prison beyond the reach of any legal remedy is to violate centuries of Anglo-American legal tradition and shatter the very foundations of constitutional government in the United States. It is to reduce the citizens of a republic to the subjects of a king. It is, in the language of the American revolutionaries, to enslave the people to a singular, arbitrary will. It is not for nothing that among the accusations listed in the Declaration of Independence is the charge that the king is guilty of “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences.”
The president’s rendition program constitutes a profound assault on American freedom as understood for the whole of this nation’s history.
Do read the whole thing. It’s very powerful.
At Wapo, Philip Bump has an in-depth look at what Trump is actually doing regarding migrants, as opposed to what he says he is doing. As I wrote in an earlier post, Trump swore he would immediately deport tens of millions of illegal and dangerous migrants as soon as he was back in office. He quickly learned that’s a thing easier said than done. Most of what Trump has been doing is about making a show of deporting any migrants he can get his hands on, preferably those that disagree with him. If any genuine criminals are being deported also, it’s probably accidental. Philip Bump writes,
The simple fact is that criminal immigrants are not as pervasive in the United States as Trump insisted on the campaign trail. (As though to emphasize that point, the Justice Department recently removed a link to a study demonstrating that immigrants were less likely to commit crimes than native-born U.S. residents.) Partly because of that, the administration’s high-profile effort to target the purported immigrant threat as a staggering success relies on a tried-and-true Trump tactic: using unverified, false or decontextualized datapoints as rhetorical anecdotes. …
… So, instead of (perhaps unflattering) verifiable data, we often just get anecdata, numbers from Trump and other officials aimed at reinforcing the idea that immigrants are being expelled from the United States at a staggering clip. Sometimes, those numbers are presented with dubious charts. Sometimes, they’re just thrown into conversations. Always, they are backstopped with videos, photos and other images showing how the administration is cracking down. The presentation from the White House is one of unrelenting strength — a presentation that appears to be a Potemkin one.
Bump pulls together as much data as is available to see exactly what Trump is doing, as opposed to what he is saying. Some of this data is from Tom Cartwright, a retired executive who has taken up the mission of tracking ICE flights. That’s an interesting story in itself. The point is that Trump is falling way short of his boasts, making him nearly frantic to round up as many bodies as he can (preferably in front of cameras) and send them where they can’t come back to sue him.
And if he’s allowed to get away with this, he’s not going to stop at immigrants.
Update: Sen. Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador today but was unable to see Abrego Garcia. He spoke to the Vice President of El Salvador and was told, as I believe we all know, that El Salvador has a contract with the government of the U.S. to keep prisoners. Which suggests that Trump could just ask El Salvador to give Abrego Garcia back, maybe paying El Salvador to pay their administrative expenses, or whatever.
Since he acts like a domestic terrorist, I want donnie deported to El Salvador.
And the Republicans just sit there and go along with it. Grassley's town hall was horrifying, watching that self-righteous old man talk about legislation from 50 years ago, as though it insulated him from what he has supported.
Two points. Trump wants to throw his critics into prison outside the jurisdiction of US courts. That's a flagrant violation of the US Constitution, namely the fifth and fourteenth amendments. (Due process) If Trump can't throw a non-citizen into a foreign prison, that sinks the plan of suppressing dissent by the threat of torture, outsourced to third-world dictators.
I'm not saying what the Roberts Court will do but a decision that allows extrajudicial exile to hell-hole prisons for the crime of dissent will provoke violence (that I don't approve of) because it leaves little recourse. It would make Dred Scott look like a clerical error by comparison.
Boasberg isn't backing down. Obviously, if he finds the administration guilty of contempt, it will go to the USSC. Given that Trump is pretending the USSC didn't order Garcia's return, thc contempt charge might be the opportunity for the USSC to stand up to Trump. IMO, Roberts chose the word 'facilitate' in the hope Trump was just being pigheaded about an 'order.' Quite the opposite, Trump decided that without the word 'order' it was a request he can ignore.
The dynamic is very like new parents afraid to exert authority over a rude and rebellious child. There are only two possible outcomes. Either they inflict penalties for bursting past known boundaries OR the brat will rule them forever.
(I'm all for negotiation with kids, some compromise, and granting more independence as they demonstrate responsibility. But a toddler can not survive without restrictions. Will the USSC be the 'firm parents' to Trump in defense of the rule of law?. Stay tuned.)
"IMO, Roberts chose the word 'facilitate' in the hope Trump was just being pigheaded about an 'order.'"
I'm not sure I agree, I have had enough of giving Roberts the benefit of the doubt, I say he used the word facilitate to give diaper don and Bondo an out, they can say they asked the President of El Salvador, he refused so they have nothing to facilitate. If we are waiting on the Roberts court to save us we will be waiting a very long time. We're fucked!
The foundational argument Trump admin is making is that Abrego Garcia is no longer in their custody and therefore nothing can be done. If I take somebody off the street, and send them to another person who I am paying to hold them, that person is still effectively in my custody.
They're sending threatening emails to people demanding they leave the US in seven days, picking up US citizens off the streets, and they all appear to be either Latin immigrants, attorneys who defend them, Canadians, e.g. people who are seen as "enemies" to Trump and MAGA. The intent is to create a climate of fear.
The courts are slow, prone to ambiguous language at a time when crystal clarity is needed. The USSC needs to step up and make it clear that Trump is in violation of the law, and start criminally sanctioning them. Otherwise, "America" is all over.
"I regret I can only focus on one issue at a time without being overwhelmed"
I'm right there with you, excellent post the best summary of this debacle I've read yet! Maybe you could get a gig at CNN!
That's quite a catch, that catch 22. The courts can rule on laws being broken and ICE and the executive branch can break the law more and then just pardon themselves. That's where were at, folks.
Nothing new under the sun.
The judge ordered 'expedited discovery ' if I have the term right. The gist is that administration officials will be called to answer questions from Mr. Garcia's lawyers. That will make or break the criminal contempt charges. Legal experts are not predicting that the Roberts Court will reverse that decision (Contempt of Court) if they continue to stonewall and defy. Yes, Trump can forgive any federal criminal conviction but if the decision (supporting Contempt) is confirmed by the USSC, Trump's crossed the line and created the offense that meets the threshold of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors."
I'm not saying impeachment is imminent. I'm saying when Trump is toxic to Republicans in Congress, they will throw him under the bus.
That's the joke. The make america orange people are a crime family whose primary directive is to never admit fault and congress is just a reality Tee Vee show of and for the kool kids klub and will never bring another oligarch to justice. The punch line is that we have a dictator and there is no burning bush that will bring the courtiers to their senses.
Fubar. I am just looking for a way to enjoy poverty because all I can see is more misery ahead. Yes, when the oligarchs start hunting us for sport, I will be to blame because I can not run fast enough to get away from their orange hounds.
Why is it that the humans who lack admirable human qualities themselves, are the ones which tend to dehumanize other humans the most?
Autism. of course, is a condition in which things rather than people have the primary focus of the person with the disorder. A little time with an autistic person will let you understand how unimportant you are to them. I get the same impression when dealing with many politicians. Do they tend to be on the same spectrum one has to wonder?
One, for sure, seems to view other humans only as objects to exploit. That characteristic, in itself, seems dehumanizing. To banish a person by 'administrative error' and leave the error uncorrected is dehumanization at its extreme. The horror.