Proof of Life

 

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 18, 2025

At least we know he's alive--there was a part of me that wondered if the White House dug in because they were trying to cover up that they had gotten a man killed. But no, it's just that they want to be able to do anything they want to do to anyone without regard for their rights under the US Constitution. And being the sort of person I am, while this proof of life is a welcome sign that both the US government and El Salvador feel the need to respond to pressure--this is not yet a good sign, it's a photo op--

See, he's alive, but he is still held, it's because the US is paying for El Salvador to keep him, and the Trump Administration feels no shame about any of that. 

Yet.

I think it is important that we look at the opinion authored by Judge Harvie Wilkinson rejecting a request from the DOJ to pause an order that they facilitate Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador:

"The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order," Wilkinson, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote. "Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear."

The arguments we are given from the right aren't even arguments about due process (to the extent that is even an understood consideration). From the feverish world of Fox News, we get a regular two-minutes hate. From the White House press office, we are treated to the spectacle of a mother grieving her own child killed by someone else altogether to justify the detention of someone whose wrongdoing is undefined and unproven in a court of law. It's like some kind of Kafka/Orwell collaboration--

And it's happening in real life, and I don't know how well people are absorbing that this can happen to anyone. When facts do not need to be proven, when guilt or innocence do not matter, what is one's citizenship? 

US citizens are already receiving warning letters to self deport. We have idiots at the helm of this mess, but once a government stops caring about the rule of law, sure! People can be trampled by sheer idiocy as well as by actual malice. 

There is no honor, no patriotism, no honesty, no scruple, in this Administration. There is no way to straddle it. We have proof of life of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Now we need proof of life that this country stands for liberty and justice.

We are only a land of the free if we demonstrate we are a country of the brave.