JD Vance called convicted MS-13 gang member” and Karoline Leavitt said she had “credible information” that he was involved in human trafficking and “was a member – actually a leader – of the brutal MS-13 gang”. These were lies. They made it up. It’s not true.
Vance and Leavitt lied because they had been made to look extremely foolish and extraordinarily cruel by accidentally sending an innocent man to the El Salvadoran nightmare prison. Garcia is, in fact, a Maryland dad who was in the country legally, is in full-time union employment and, by the Trump istration lawyers’ ission, was only deported as a result of an “istrative error”.
Despite that unambiguous fact, the Trump istration has spent countless hours searching for a way to ignore this inconvenient truth and abandon Garcia to his fate. First, the lawyers casually explained that as he’s in El Salvador there’s nothing they can do to help him. Then, when a district court judge ordered his immediate return, they smeared the judge as a liberal activist overreaching her power and appealed to the Supreme Court.
In a ruling with no noted dissents, the Supreme Court has told the Trump that, no seriously guys, GET THIS GUY BACK NOW. The order, released on Thursday, instructs the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
This will have left red faces at the White House, some with embarrassment and some with fury. Naturally, they need to save face, so Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin clutched at straws to say that, actually, the order telling them to return Garcia is a win for them as the judges “agreed with us that the District Court improperly interfered with the President’s foreign affairs power”. Well, yes, technically. But the Supreme Court is also banging you guys’ heads together and telling you to get this guy on a plane, stat.
As there is no route of appeal from a Supreme Court decision, two things could now happen. The first is that Trump’s goons grudgingly comply, fly to El Salvador, pick up Garcia and return him to his family. The second is that they simply ignore it and see what happens. After all, who’s going to step in and enforce it? But, at that point, the US really would be living under a dictator, so let’s hope it’s the former.
Published: Apr 11, 2025 04:30 am