6 events in Passaic County with a date

Vance says it's 'gross' to care a man may die in el Salvador

By: Elvia Diaz
Editorial page editor
Arizona Republic
USA Today Network

..... What's worse than admitting a potentially deadly deportation mistake? Laughing it off.
..... You already know that President Donald Trump and his folks never own up mistakes. That ought to tell you the magnitude of admitting in court that the administration erroneously sent a man to El Salvador prison hell.
..... "This removal was an error," and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials wrote in a statement to a federal judge about deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia under the Alien enemies Act, invoked by Trump.
..... Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland under protective mitigation status, was on one of three flights to El Salvador in mid-March, [2025] orchestrated using rarely invoked war powers.

Trump doesn't need are powers to deport

..... Federal judge James Boasberg stopped further deportations under the Alien enemies Act pending review, which unleashed Trump's fury. The president called for impeaching the judge, prompting a rare rebuke from U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
..... But back to Trump's human trafficking. Yes, let's call it that, because it is.
..... Nobody denies that the president has the power to deport those living in the United States illegally. does he need war powers to do it, though? Certainly not.
..... And even worse, should Trump and his folks make up things or ignore court orders to put them behind bars ere or send them to notorious prisons abroad and get away with it?

He sent migrants to a "mega prison"

..... In 2019, an immigration judge deemed Abrego Garcia to be a "likely member of the MS-13 gang," according to various media reports.
..... Trump to various recently designated that gang as terrorists.
..... But Abrego Garcia contested those gang affiliation claims in 2019 and tortured back home in El Salvador. A judge ordered that he couldn't be deported to El Salvador, had thus he was released from ICE custody.
..... That t made no difference to the trump administration, which rounded him up in March [2025] and is now fighting Abrego Garcia's legal claims against his imprisonment, saying the United States can't do anything to bring him back because he's now under El Salvador custody.
..... They even have the gall to argue that he's not likely to be killed. What? you don't have be a lawyer or legal expert to know that's BS.
..... Trump made a deal with El Salvador to send deportees to its "mega prison," where the worst criminals are housed along with others who spend 23.5 hours a day in the harshest conditions.

Vance treats Garcia as less than human

..... What do you call citations of picking up people merely accused of a crime or justs being in the United States illegally and turning them over to a foreign nation to do whatever it wants with them? Abrego Garcia happens to be Salvadoran, but Trump, also sent Venezuelans to that prison.
..... That's human trafficking at its worst.
..... I'm not naive. I know that GAGA Republicans hail Trump's worst instincts and actions against immigrates because, to them, these folks are less than human, not deserving the most basic rights. Vice President JD Vance even said as much.
..... "It's gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize," Vance wrote on X, former Twitter, resounding to "pod Save America" host Jon Favreau about the error.
..... "What;s Vance smoking? Talk about ignoring basis facts. Who did Abrego Garcia "victimize"?
..... If he was such a horrible criminal, why not prosecute him in the United States and put him behind bars here? After all, we have all the resources to prove such things right?
..... Again, as president, Trump has the power to depart undocumented immigrants. He doesn't need an excuse to do so or war powers to speed up the process.
..... But all of us should be terrified of a president and an administration that not only shrugs off basic human rights but blatantly makes up things against people.
..... "We've seen this movie before where groups of people are targeted for political purposes. it never stops with the initial targets, and it never ends well.

..... Elvia Diaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach her at: elvia.diaz@arisonrepublic.com or follow her on X, formerly Twitter @elviadiz1

HOME