I have argued many times that we cannot rely on the inherent goodness of human beings in order to have good government. One of the key passages that I have quoted many times is the following from James Madison in Federalist 51.
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
In brief terms, this means that humans are flawed and need the structure of government in ways that wholly good, heavenly beings would not. In short, we need rules to bind our behavior. It also underscores that government, which consists of decidedly unheavenly humans, needs constraints. I have also long cited Plato and Artistotle who argued that a singular wise and virtuous ruler would be best, but such a person is hard (if not impossible) to find and that even if you find one, their successor would like be a terrible tyrant (that’s a quick precis of two rather complicated works, so take my summary in that spirit).
But what we are seeing with the Trump administration is, first, a government populated not by angels, but sadly not just run-of-the-mill humans. Instead, we are getting government by heartless devils (to keep with the metaphor).
We are also seeing the failure of the rules that are supposed to bind bad actors, i.e., Congress is not acting as a check on the executive, and it is unclear if the courts will be able to actually do so.
As was noted in the discussion of my post on the defiant attitude being displayed by the Trump administration as it pertains to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s illegal (that’s SCOTUS’ word to describe the situation) rendition to CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo or Center for Terrorism Confinement) in El Salvador, any even semi-decent set of human beings who admitted that they sent Abrego Garcia to CECOT by mistake would be tripping over themselves to bring him back instead of what the Trump admininstration is doing.
It is clear that they do. not. care.
Let me be specific about the known conditions in CECOT.
Here is an account of a tour taken by a journalist and given by the warden, Inside CECOT, The Prison that Nobody Leaves. Keep in mind this was stuff the prison wanted seen and reported.
“It is impossible to escape. These psychopaths will spend their whole lives behind these bars.” The warden of the maximum security prison, located in the municipality of Tecoluca, uses those words to describe the extreme security measures under which the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT, for its Spanish acronym) has been built.
[…]
Each cell inside the CECOT has room for 80 inmates, as per the amount of metal bunk beds. But throughout the tour, the warden failed to provide the exact number of each. “Where there’s room for 10, there’s room for 20 or 100,” was his response to the questions posed by journalists.
[…]
Family visitation is not allowed. In fact, there are no visitations at all, due to the criminal profile of each inmate.
[…]
It is forbidden to ask questions to the inmates.
[…]
Inmates are locked up all day. They only leave for 30 minutes for a walk through the main hall wearing hand and feet cuffs. The only activity they can do inside their cells is reading the Bible, but that privilege is not for all.
Again, this is the “positive” version of the prison.
Here are more details from a Human Rights Watch report.
People held in CECOT, as well as in other prisons in El Salvador, are denied communication with their relatives and lawyers, and only appear before courts in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time. The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as “terrorists,” and has said that they “will never leave.” Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison. The government of El Salvador denies human rights groups access to its prisons and has only allowed journalists and social media influencers to visit CECOT under highly controlled circumstances.
[…]
While CECOT is likely to have more modern technology and infrastructure than other prisons in El Salvador, I understand the mistreatment of detainees there to be in large part similar to what Human Rights Watch has documented in other prisons in El Salvador, including Izalco, La Esperanza (Mariona) and Santa Ana prisons. This includes cases of torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, severe violations of due process and inhumane conditions, such as lack of access to adequate healthcare and food.
I would recommend reading the whole thing, which provides a larger context for the behavior of the Bukele regime as it pertains to human rights abuses in the name of law and order and to the known conditions in prisons in El Salvador other than CECOT.
Anyone who thinks that there isn’t systematic violence, torture, and various human rights violations within the walls of CECOT is engaging in utter denial.
Even for “the worst of the worst,” these are unacceptably inhumane conditions.
The notion, however, that the government of the United States knows that it sent an innocent person and seems indifferent to the situation is just stomach-churning and grotesque.
And, of course, we have every reason to believe that some significant number of the 200+ persons rendered to this detention camp in El Salvador are likewise innocent. And even if they are guilty of being in the country illegally or even being members of a gang, they don’t qualify as terrorists, let alone the “worst of the worst.”
I again note: CECOT is a human rights abuse factory that no one should be imprisoned in. Sending people there without due process is a gross violation of human decency. Knowing that a person was sent there in error is just beyond any level of acceptable.
Not only does the Trump administration not care, but they are fighting in court for the right to avoid fixing the situation.
This is all a cruel game to the administration. As was also noted in the comments, our Secretary of Homeland Security confirmed this week her view of how great permanent imprisonment at CECOT is. Via Axios:
“We’re confident that people that are [imprisoned in El Salvador] should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives,” Noem said after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) event.
I would remind the readers that one of the main ways a lot of these folks were sentenced to life imprisonment was through tattoo interpretation by ICE agents. I note that in the linked post above, but also the Axios piece notes:
In the case of Tren de Aragua, a tattoo “denoting membership/loyalty to TDA” would count four points toward a removal action, according to the document. If a person admits being a gang member, that alone would be enough for removal from the U.S.
So, just a given agent’s interpretation of ink counts halfway towards deportation (although it is unclear to me how many points they need to be removed). And while I agree that being a member of TdA is not good, does mere membership justify life imprisonment? Worse, life imprisonment under the conditions described?
This is all simply evil. And that is not a term I deploy lightly.
To return to Madison’s metaphor, what is more demonic than casting an innocent man into Hell and celebrating it? Or, celebrating Hell as a general matter?
One of the various factors that led to my break with the Republicans party many years ago was the Bush administration’s embrace of torture. This is ratcheting up that embrace in a truly horrifying way.
None of this is justice.
By the way, via Newsweek, Donald Trump Says He Loves Idea of Sending Americans to El Salvador Prison.
After all, he is just talking about criminals. They aren’t really people, right?
