 |
| A rally in Baltimore last week. |
The saga of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia (hereafter, KA-G) is a case
in point. In one sense, whether he is
the gang member and terrorist the administration would have us believe or the
tax-paying family man the left would like to portray him as is utterly
irrelevant. ICE agents knew he was, at
the time of his arrest, a legal resident of the US. They also knew that a federal judge had ruled
that he should never be deported to El Salvador, even as a free man when he
arrived there. They arrested him and
sent him to (let’s call it what it is) a Salvadoran concentration camp,
anyway. “Administrative error.” Oops! (By
the way, the DOJ lawyer who admitted that there had been an “administrative error” was suspended and
subsequently fired.)
Whatever KA-G’s character or his affiliations (or lack of
them), this case is about due process. That’s
it. As Senator Chris Van Hollen said on ABC’s
“This Week,” “I am not defending the man. I'm defending the rights of this man
to due process.” The Senator took a
much-publicized trip to El Salvador, where he was eventually able to meet with
KA-G. Was that grandstanding? Of course, but, unlike the disgusting display
of Kristi Noem and a gaggle of Republican pols, it actually had a purpose other
than just showing off.
The administration would like to claim that supporters of the
basic principle of due process, guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to everyone
(not just citizens), want to import foreign-born terrorists. No, actually, the terrorists in this scenario
are the ironically named Justice Department, ICE, DHS, Trump, Vance, Rubio, Noem,
and their apologists. Every accusation does
indeed appear to be a confession.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the
administration should “facilitate” KA-G’s return. The administration first tried to pretend the
ruling was in their favor, then pretty much ignored the court order, then openly
defied it. The administration is clearly
in the wrong, and they don’t want to take responsibility for their
fuck-up. There’s no news there for any
administration, especially this one.
The procedural violations are sufficient to rally to KA-G’s
defense, and no honest and rational American would say otherwise. Yes, Curmie just called the entire Trump
administration and the overwhelming majority of GOP pols dishonest and/or irrational. On second thought, they might not all be
corrupt or stupid, just craven. Moving
on…
The facts that KA-G was denied due process, that he was
deported in violation of a court order, that (unlike POTUS) he has never been
convicted of literally any crime: these matter.
What they don’t do is paint him as an entirely innocent victim in
ethical as opposed to legal terms. In
other words, if the administration had followed the rules and gone through the
appropriate processes, incarcerating KA-G might have been the
appropriate outcome. (Sending him, or
indeed anyone, to a Salvadoran Gulag is, of course, a different matter, one
which Curmie chooses to sidestep at the moment.)
So… what are the actual facts, as best we can understand
them? Curmie is going to try to tease
things out in chronological order. Here
goes…
We know that KA-G entered the country illegally as a
teenager in March of 2012. That’s about
the only part of this saga about which there is no disagreement or need for
contextualization. He says he walked
across the border near McAllen, Texas.
In 2019, he was detained for “loitering” outside a Home
Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland. Local
police identified him as a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang. Here’s where we get into murkier waters. The “Gang Field Interview Sheet” claims that
the hoodie he was wearing and the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat
meant that he was “a member in good standing with
the MS-13.” There was also the
corroboration of what one presumes was a confidential informant.
Curmie suspects that there may have been a few people in the
country who weren’t in a gang but sported that Bulls cap, although according to
one actual expert on the gang, “at some point, the Chicago Bulls logo with the
horns became a stand-in of sorts for the MS-13's devil horns symbol.” The details of the hoodie—“with rolls of
money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate
denominations“—may or may not be “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.” Is there a possibility that those sartorial
choices at least suggested what the cops said they meant? Yes.
Is there prima facie evidence to support that conclusion? No.
Ah, but there’s the testimony of that presumed witness, “a
proven and reliable source of information,” who said that Abrego-Garcia was an
“active member of MS-13 with the Western Clique… with the rank of ‘Chequeo.’” But, and as they said in burlesque, it’s a
big but: Chequeo is the term for an MS-13 recruit who has not yet been
initiated, so not an “active member.” Oh,
and the Western Clique operates out of New York, where KA-G says he’s never
lived. (It would be easy enough to
check.) And, of course, the cop who
filled out the form was suspended for misconduct shortly thereafter and
subsequently fired. Other than those…
ahem… minor details, the bust and its consequences seem totally kosher.
Anyway, the case went to an Immigration judge, who relied on
this allegedly legitimate informant, and decided that there was enough evidence
to support KA-G’s gang membership.
Another judge agreed. At this
level—remember, Gentle Reader, this is not a trial—the court, according to
David Bier of the Cato Institute, “takes at face value any evidence that the
government provides. It is not assessing its underlying validity at that stage.”
KA-G was therefore denied bail as a flight risk. It’s important to note here that in such
cases, the burden of proof shifts.
Denial of bail in these situations happens not because the authorities
can prove that a foreign national is either a danger to society or a flight
risk, but because the defendant cannot prove that he is not.
During this time, KA-G applied for asylum so he would not be
sent back to El Salvador. This was
denied. Again, the reason is important: the
application was filed too late. What
happened instead was the next-best thing: a “withholding of removal,” based on
KA-G’s “well-founded” fear of persecution by Barrio-18, MS-13’s most notorious
rival gang. Does this provide further
evidence that KA-G is an MS-13 gangster?
Maybe. Or perhaps the whole
business really was, as he claims, about extortions and threats against his
mother’s pupusa shop.
Again, it’s time for some clarification. The “withholding of removal” order means,
first of all, that KA-G was in the country legally thereafter. He could still be deported if the government
chose to do so, but not to El Salvador, and certainly not to a
Salvadoran Gulag. It also means that the
Department of Homeland Security had to sign off that he presented no “danger to
the security of the United States.”
Lemme think… who was President in 2019?
It seems to have been that bellicose fat guy with the spray tan and the
bad toupée.
It also means that KA-G had to have an annual
check-in with immigration officials, including twice in the previous Trump
administration; they proceeded without incident. No new evidence has been presented, which, if
nothing else, makes the present-tense accusations of recent weeks (see below)
even a little more suspect.
OK, so now we jump ahead a couple of years to 2021. KA-G is
now a husband and a father. His wife, Jennifer
Vasquez Sura, claimed he had attacked her, and a temporary restraining order
was indeed issued. She decided not to
take the matter further; there was no formal charge of domestic battery or the
like, and the case never as much as went to trial. The couple sought counseling and seems to
have completely reconciled. She is
certainly supporting him now, and, by the way, has repeatedly and emphatically denied
that her husband is a member of MS-13.
Spousal abuse is not a good thing. Indeed, the DHS tweet that KA-G is “not a
sympathetic figure” has a point (sort of), even if commenting at all beyond
releasing the court documents was tacky in the extreme and deceitful in its
claim that he is an “MS-13 gang member.”
(In any actual professional organization, whoever posted that tweet
would be fired. Not so with DHS, of
course.) Notice, also, the present tense
of that claim. For the tweet to be other
than slanderous, DHS would need actual evidence that KA-G is currently
functioning as a member of MS-13. Show
us, then.
That said, KA-G was not, as Trumpian Puppet Vice
President Vance declared, a “convicted MS-13 gang member.” Unlike the proclamations of DHS, Karoline
Leavitt (a.k.a. Bullshit Barbie), and Trump himself that KA-G is a gang member,
Vance adds the word “convicted,” thereby changing speculation masquerading as
fact to… (what’s that phrase again? Oh,
yes…) an outright lie. He has a law
degree from Yale and doesn’t know there’s no conviction without a trial? On the contrary, he’s just a mendacious
attack dog. (Curmie intends no disrespect
to literal attack dogs who happen to be Dobermanns or pit bulls or Rottweilers
or whatever, and apologizes for linking them in any way to refuse like Mr.
Vance.)
And so we move ahead to December of 2022, when KA-G was pulled
over in what was initially a routine traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway
Patrol. The trooper noticed that there
were eight men in the vehicle, but no luggage; he suspected the possibility of
human trafficking. All of the passengers
gave the same home address as KA-G’s.
Yeah, that might raise an eyebrow.
That, plus the fact that KA-G was apparently driving with an
expired “Limited Term Temporary” license, led to a little checking with other
agencies, and that immigration judge’s ruling came to light. There’s some confusion here, as one report
says that KA-G’s name was found on a terrorist watch list; another says it
didn’t, but that of one of the passengers did.
Anyway, after nearly two hours, the trooper released KA-G
without even a traffic ticket, apparently at the behest of the FBI. KA-G’s story that he was collecting
prospective workers in Texas and taking them to Maryland seems to check out,
which of course doesn’t mean that this wasn’t, in fact, a human trafficking
operation. The first reporting of this
incident came in the Tennessee Star, a right-leaning publication which
sort of hints at some kind of impropriety on the part of “Biden’s FBI.” Exactly why the FBI would care is
unclear. There would seem to be no
political advantage to be gained.
Bribery? Possible, of course, but
it would have to be massive. ‘Tis, as
they say, a puzzlement.
Anyway, rightly or wrongly, there was no arrest, let alone
conviction. Could this have been the
prompt for the idiot Vance’s claim that KA-G wasn’t a good father because he’d
been stopped for speeding? Maybe. And whereas suspicion about that traffic stop
is reasonable, it’s well within the bounds of possibility that the FBI simply
told the trooper that no, there’s no probable cause to hold him.
Bullshit Barbie has, of course, labelled KA-G a terrorist
(among other things) because someone, Curmie isn’t sure who, accused him of
that. Well, if he’s guilty because of
that, then BB’s boss is similarly guilty of treason, conspiracy to commit kidnapping,
election interference, fraud, grand larceny, racial and sexual discrimination, slander,
bribery, and rape. Oh, and murdering his
ex-wife. That doesn't even count his
actual felony convictions. How anyone
can take her, or indeed anyone in this administration, seriously is beyond Curmie’s
feeble ken.
It could well be that KA-G really is a bad guy. That does not mean that snatching him in the
presence of his young son with threats to send the lad into foster care is
anything but abhorrent. Or that shipping
him off to a Salvadoran hellhole in intentional defiance of a court order is
legal, let alone legitimate. Or that
refusal to abide by a Supreme Court ruling is anything less than an impeachable
offense. The fact that there are too few
GOP Congresscritters with the integrity of a hungry cobra or the backbone of
overcooked linguini to actually take action doesn’t change their responsibility
to do so.
Once again, had the administration followed legal procedure,
detained KA-G on suspicion of membership on what Trump had by now declared a
terrorist organization, provided due process, and, after appropriate
opportunities for KA-G to defend himself, still found him guilty, it would have
been legal to send him to El Salvador.
Not appropriate, not ethical, but legal.
OF course, the administration’s claim that they’re powerless
to get him back, completely undercut by their (alas, successful) efforts to
release the undeniably despicable Andrew Tate from a Romanian prison, is just
downright silly. One phone call from
Trump would do it. But, petulant toddler
that he is, he just doesn’t want to.
Na-na na-na boo-boo.
Finally, there’s the pièce de résistance (Curmie
seems drawn to that word “résistance” of late), the clearest example of
the inability of the Emperor of Trumpistan to justify his actions, the most
obvious demonstration of just how desperate he is to avoid accountability. In an absurd and futile attempt to further
smear KA-G, Donald Trump himself released a photo are what he purported to be
tattoos on KA-G’s knuckles.
Curmie detected the aroma of bovine fecal matter immediately
upon hearing about the story; if such a photo actually existed, it would have
been released weeks ago in an attempt to quell the backlash. But he hadn’t seen the photo and decided to
check it out. The photoshopping job on
that image is so outrageously inept that Curmie, who’s used Photoshop only a
couple of times a decade or so ago, has got 20 bucks that says he could create
a more believable fake in about five minutes.
As Curmie wrote on his FB page, anyone who believes in the
authenticity of that image has already sent money to that Nigerian prince and
is wondering why he hasn’t replied. The
good news here is that in his attempt to make points, Trump overwhelming
overplayed his hand. He’s a buffoon, and
he proved it so convincingly that even the MAGA minions have got to be shaking their heads in disbelief.
So here we are. Up to
date. Or maybe there’s yet another
development that Curmie hasn’t seen yet.
The good news is that the illegality, the arrogance, and the racism of
this administration are on public display.
The bad news is that GOP pols still pretend not to see what’s right in
front of them.
La la, how the life goes on.
You will note, Gentle Reader, that as has happened once or twice in the past, Curmie hasn’t linked every fact or quote. He’ll do that in his scholarship and usually, but not always, here. So here’s a list of a few links that contributed to this piece: An early report from NBC. General overviews from the BBC, Yahoo, and PolitiFact. The Gang Field Interview Sheet from 2019, the denial of an appeal to be released on bail in that case, information about the cop’s suspension and firing from the Daily Voice and USA Today. The 4th Circuit’s ruling, SCOTUS documents on the administration’s attempt to overturn the 4th circuit decision, and more from the 4th Circuit. DHS’s tweet. Two stories about that traffic stop in Tennessee: from The Tennessee Star and WSMV. Stories about that stupid photoshopped image of KA-G’s “tattoos” from Politifact, Newsweek, and The Latin Times. Info on Sen. Val Hollen’s appearance on “This Week.”
No comments:
Post a Comment