Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Source: the White House in 2019

A False and Immoral Catch-22

It is one helluva a catch

Steven L. Taylor
29

Comments

Source: the White House in 2019

So, the Trump administration says they have no power to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US because it is the sovereign decision of the government of El Salvador to do so.

President Bukele of El Salvador says he doesn’t have the power to return him.

It is a false catch-22.

Note how Bukele lies and calls the Abrego Garcia a “terrorist.”

BTW, this is the first time in my life I have seen a President of the United States sitting next to an authoritarian leader of another country and seen them as moral equals.

So if you are one of the holdouts about either the authoritarian nature of the Trump administration, or are still questioning whether the Constitution is under attack, I think it is time to reassess.

If you still think this is normal, please explain why the following is the case: a man that the US government agrees was sent to prison without due process and by mistake will have to spend the rest of his life imprisoned because Trump will not do what is necessary to get him out, which is basically ask Bukele to release him.

Who would like to defend the morality of this?

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29 responses to “A False and Immoral Catch-22”

  1. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    And here sits the president of the US, apparently entirely at the mercy of a tin pot dictator to whom the president’s government has paid millions of dollars. (Yeah, I know the fix is in.) How does Trump look strong in this scenario?

    8
  2. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    @Joe: But everyone knows that Trump is just bald face lying to create a fiction of complying with the Supreme Court. Lying is strength.

    He also says he wants to send American citizens to these concentration camps.

    10
  3. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @Joe:

    And here sits the president of the US, apparently entirely at the mercy of a tin pot dictator to whom the president’s government has paid millions of dollars. (Yeah, I know the fix is in.) How does Trump look strong in this scenario?

    He doesn’t–at least to people who approach things logically. There’s no way to acknowledge he can’t make a small country that we are paying for a service to take action related to that service.

    For his supporters and apologists, he may be showing his strength because he’s Jacksoning the Supreme Court.

    Also for the record, Steven Miller also misrepresented the USSC ruling to the point that it has to be considered a flat out lie:

    Trump: The supreme court, it was 9-0?

    Miller: In our favor, against the district court ruling, saying no district court has the power to compel the foreign policy

    https://x.com/Acyn/status/1911812023895359855

    That lie also is most likely intended to set up a legal fiction to ignore the eventual Supreme Court order. Or, more likely to say when they eventually repatriate the petitioner that they are “choosing” to do this out of the goodness of their hearts, rather than because they believe a court can mandate said repatriation.

    7
  4. DK Avatar
    DK

    Rapist, racist, and Epstein-bestie pedophile Trump is a neofascist aspiring dictator who despises real American values. This is why he and his ignorant, unethical, unpatriotic MAGA cult think it’s okay to disappear legal residents into foreign torture prisons — with neither due process nor even criminal charges.

    These Rethuglikkklans are starting with low-hanging immigrant and expat fruit. But it’s just an opening salvo in the ultimate Project 2025 conservative plan to detain and disappear American citizens who oppose the right.

    Kelly, Mattis, and other Trump colleagues warned us Donald is a dangerously amoral and unfit Hitler-wannabe. They were and are correct, of course.

    6
  5. James R Ehrler Avatar
    James R Ehrler

    @Matt Bernius:

    Also, for the record, Miller lied during a Fox “News” hit this morning, https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lmrobxubic23, when he said that the Administration never said it was an error…it was just a rogue AUSA, “a democrat, a saboteur.”

    Bzzzzt

    Admitted on 3/31 by Robert Cerna, an ICE acting field office director
    https://bsky.app/profile/rparloff.bsky.social/post/3lmrtppdfus2w
    https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.11.3_2.pdf

    Also admitted on 4/5 in a filing to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a filing signed by four DOJ attys
    https://bsky.app/profile/rparloff.bsky.social/post/3lmrtpqduws2w

    Finally, repeated again on 4/7, in the govt’s emergency stay petition to SCOTUS, signed by Solicitor General John Sauer!!
    https://bsky.app/profile/rparloff.bsky.social/post/3lmrtprcx3c2w

    1
  6. Daryl Avatar
    Daryl

    BTW, this is the first time in my life I have seen a President of the United States sitting next to an authoritarian leader of another country and seen them as moral equals.

    What about Putin and Kim Jong Un, Trump’s lover?

    2
  7. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    @Daryl: They’re not lovers, that’s hyperbole. They’re role models and mentors.

    1
  8. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    FYI: if pictures are to be believed, Bukele is a Roman enthusiast and salutes them on the regular.

    https://bsky.app/profile/ryanmarino.bsky.social/post/3lmsd4xeank23

    On an unrelated note: do we have any proof of life for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, or do we just have assertions from our administration that they have assertions from the Bukele administrations?

  9. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    The rapist is history’s weakest strongman.

    3
  10. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    when they eventually repatriate the petitioner

    @Matt Bernius: Short of impeachment and conviction of Trump, they are never bringing Abrego Garcia back.

    4
  11. Eusebio Avatar
    Eusebio

    In a related matter, last week the US State Department upgraded El Salvador’s travel advisory status to level 1, which is the safest and better than that of France and Spain. Not saying that I wouldn’t go to El Salvador if I had an actual reason to, but I’m not going to El Salvador anytime soon. I’m sure it’s relatively safe for the vast majority of people who are not under the suspicion of government authorities, but it does have an authoritarian regime, so no. And especially not now that the US president has openly stated his desire to imprison American citizens there, while the El Salvadoran president said bluntly that there’s nothing he can do to release a man in order for him to be returned to the US.

    1
  12. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @Kathy:

    He’s a fat, stupid, old sap.

    2
  13. Jay L Gischer Avatar
    Jay L Gischer

    Steven Miller: Black is White!
    Bukele: Ignorance is Strength!
    Trump: Slavery is Freedom. Such beautiful freedom. Nobody ever saw such beautiful freedom as slavery.

    5
  14. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Daryl:

    What about Putin and Kim Jong Un, Trump’s lover?

    At the time the Kim Jong Un summit felt like Trump being a foolish noob at foreign policy and sucking up fake praise.

    In that crazy press conference with Putin he looked like a simp.

    In this case, he is hosting a foreign leader in the White House and is thoroughly and overtly on the same moral plane.

    4
  15. Daryl Avatar
    Daryl

    @Steven L. Taylor:
    Fair enough.

  16. Kingdaddy Avatar
    Kingdaddy

    Strange that all the usual contrarians are completely MIA. You can always rely on them to make snarky comments about Democrats, or declare their superior knowledge of economics, or derail discussions with random nonsense, but they have nothing to say about the unlawful, un-Constitutional, and generally evil imprisonment of someone in a Salvadoran torture dungeon.

    7
  17. Daryl Avatar
    Daryl

    Tell me this doesn’t sound like Colonel Jessup?
    https://x.com/Acyn/status/1911812958218490149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1911812958218490149%7Ctwgr%5E166a4c8a748027d459ec4ffdcfb4948420b1f666%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Ftrump-insults-kaitlan-collins-supreme-court-deportation-question_n_67fc1792e4b0afe00ba8e79f

    I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

    I would rather that you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the post. Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!

  18. wr Avatar
    wr

    @Kingdaddy: “Strange that all the usual contrarians are completely MIA.”

    Well, “Fortune” is on some other forum whining about how terrible Europe is based on bullshit cherrypicked incidents. So he’s not completely MIA, he’s just far too big a coward to try to address any of the really important issues out there.

    2
  19. wr Avatar
    wr

    @Kingdaddy: “Strange that all the usual contrarians are completely MIA.”

    Well, “Fortune” is on some other forum whining about how terrible Europe is based on bullshit cherrypicked incidents. So he’s not completely MIA, he’s just far too big a coward to try to address any of the really important issues out there.

  20. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    You’d think imprisoning people for life without due process or any right to appeal, should be something that would interest the ICC.

    7
  21. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    @Jay L Gischer: I take Miller’s comments as this administration not quite being willing to openly break with the Supreme Court, and hanging their hat on the word “facilitate” being a fairly passive act. It can be read either as working to secure Garcia’s release, or just assisting Bukele if he chooses to release Garcia.

    And I expect the Supreme Court chose that fairly passive word to get a 9-0 decision.

    And so far, neither the administration nor the court have blinked. I expect the Supreme Court will have a blinking opportunity in the near future, when they need to clarify the boundaries of “facilitate.”

    Or the entire, specific Garcia crisis to become moot when we learn that Garcia “killed himself” in CECOT.

    3
  22. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    I’ve been wondering where our former Presidents have been recently, and what’s up with them. We have a tradition of former Presidents not criticizing the current administration, but a constitutional crisis and setting up concentration camps seems like the type of thing that they might weigh in on.

    Biden will be giving his first post-Presidency speech tomorrow, about Social Security. Obama has been silent, and there are divorce rumors from the places that would make shit up — George W. Bush painted a picture of his eldest granddaughter’s cat. I am impressed by how little progress he has made in his painting abilities, honestly. Bill Clinton appears to not exist. George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan are still dead.

    On to VPs, Harris is contemplating the possibility of considering creating a think tank, Pence is starting an ad campaign against Trump’s tariffs, Biden is covered above but seems so Vice-Presidential I figured he merited inclusion here anyway, Dick Cheney is being claimed to have supported race-specific bioweapons according to Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson, and Al Gore is giving a speech on the Climate in a week.

    3
  23. Ken_L Avatar
    Ken_L

    Here’s the ‘best’ comment on the matter from the New York Post, with almost 1,000 upvotes:

    There should be one question asked – Is the person here legally? If the answer is no, than the person gets a one-way ticket back to the country of origin. No further ‘due process’ necessary.

    MAGA cultists are absolutely convinced that it’s illegal to be in America without a visa, no matter what any court might say to the contrary, and that the “illegals” deserve everything they get in the way of punishment. It is a waste of time trying to argue with them on either legal or moral grounds.

    5
  24. Eusebio Avatar
    Eusebio

    @Gustopher:
    “Or the entire, specific Garcia crisis to become moot when we learn that Garcia “killed himself” in CECOT.”

    That’s a definite possibility… If further pressed by the court to return Garcia, the administration may feel incentivized to make sure his case becomes moot so that there’s no example of a successful prisoner return from CECOT for other cases to follow.

    3
  25. Jay L Gischer Avatar
    Jay L Gischer

    @Gustopher: A completely reasonable take, and one I made myself. I just didn’t feel like being “reasonable” when I wrote that post.

  26. Just nutha ignint cracker Avatar
    Just nutha ignint cracker

    @Kathy: I think you’re confusing the “rule of law” with a voluntary commitment to follow the same rules as everyone else–until we change our minds.

    ETA: Beyond which, Edge’s AI informs me that the ICC prosecutes individuals for “genocide, crimes against humanity, and genocide.” Which individual is the ICC going to charge with which of those three available choices? Remembering that an abridgement of an individual’s legal rights is gonna be a stretch for “crimes against humanity.”

    1
  27. Charley in Cleveland Avatar
    Charley in Cleveland

    Never has it been more clear that Trump listens to the ghost of Heinrich Himmler, now d/b/a Stephen Miller. Miller’s condescending lecture to the media showed that he is a world class dissembler who, like all good MAGA asshats, has no shame gene in his body. I don’t know which was more pathetic – Miller telling Trump they “won” a 9-0 decision, or Trump swallowing it whole, and later agreeing that it would be a good idea to send “our criminals” to El Salvador. JFC!

    1
  28. Tony W Avatar
    Tony W

    @Ken_L: Well, the good news is that he was here legally – his deportation was deferred under a court order.

    So there goes that argument.

  29. Ken_L Avatar
    Ken_L

    @Tony W: You don’t get their mentality. He crossed the border illegally, therefore he had no rights, therefore the do-not-deport order was invalid, therefore he deserves to be in El Salvador. That is how they think and they are impervious to any counter-argument.

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