Why Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Deportation Matters to All of Us

If you have read the news lately, you may have run across the name Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Garcia is an immigrant who recently suffered deportation. I will return to his case in a moment.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

But first I would like you to imagine a situation I will call the Trespasser Scenario.

Imagine that through no fault of your own, you are pursued by people threatening your life.

You had to flee in the middle of the night, wearing nothing but pajama bottoms and a Metallica t-shirt you got at a concert in high school.

Picture courtesy of Unsplash.

Running for your life, you escape into a nearby neighborhood and manage to evade your pursuers temporarily.

You find a door opened in a local warehouse and slip in there to hide.

In your terror, you accidentally brush up against a machine, damaging part of it.

Later some employees of the warehouse find you, and they are very angry that you are in their warehouse.

They call the police.

One of the employees hates 80s metal bands and thinks all such bands are clearly evil.

The employee tells the police that you are clearly a part of a satanic cult as is evidenced by your Metallica t-shirt, your unkempt appearance, and your wanton property destruction.

The employee tells the police that for the good of society, you should be locked up for the rest of your life.

Okay, thanks for using your imagination with me. I’ll come back to the Trespasser Scenario in a moment.

First, let me tell you about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Garcia is a young El Salvadoran man, husband, and father, who originally came to the United States illegally.

He did this because gangs threatened his life in his home country.

Garcia was undocumented when he came to the United States, and the police apprehended him at one point because of this status.

But based on the threat to his life in El Salvador, a U.S. judge eventually granted him permission to stay temporarily on a work visa.

Recently, the police accused Garcia of being a gang member, which he denied.

Their evidence was that Garcia dressed like a gang member; had a tattoo that looked like a gang tattoo; and someone said that Garcia was a gang member.

The government recently deported Garcia to an El Salvadorian prison, which has a reputation for brutality and human rights violations.

Picture courtesy of Unsplash.

Garcia and his lawyer (and his wife) continue to deny he is a part of a gang and to plead for his return.

The Supreme Court recently mandated that the government and the President have to return Garcia.

And ICE has admitted that Garcia’s deportation resulted because of a clerical error.

So far, President Trump and associated parties have refused to retrieve Garcia.

You can read about his story here: Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

Now, the title of this post is “Why Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Deportation Matters to All of Us.”

And given some of my other posts, you might think that I am going to talk about the ethics of Garcia’s case and why we should all care about ethics.

Certainly, I do care about the ethics of this case and the way we treat immigrants in general.

But in this post, I want to discuss why Garcia’s case matters to everyone, no matter your opinions on the ethics of immigration.

To do this, I want to state something that I think you and I probably have in common, whether I know you or not.

I bet both of us care about our rights, and we don’t want our rights violated.

And we are wise to care about our rights.

The reason we build rights into our legal system is because human beings are both the worst and the best of animals.

We are the best of animals because we have the ability to cultivate moral character.

That is, we can take responsibility for our lives, make good decisions, and bring more goodness into the world.

So, we give people rights like free speech and religion to help them exercise their moral abilities.

But we are also the worst of animals.

That’s because if we don’t act according to moral principles, we act according to self-interest, unprincipled passions, and prejudice.

I’m going to call this the dark side of human beings.

Both individual human beings and the government have a dark side.

So, we also give people rights in order to protect them from the dark side of both other individuals and the government.

For example, think back to the Trespasser Scenario.

In that scenario, you have fled to the nearby warehouse in fear for your life, not because you intend to harm anyone.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

And you wear a Metallica t-shirt because it reminds you of a cool concert from your teenage years, not because you belong to a satanic cult [1].

You are well-meaning and trying to survive.

But the employee in the Trespasser Scenario refuses to see these basic facts.

And, instead, because of their prejudice and unprincipled thinking, accuses you of evil intent.

Most of us have suffered false accusations from someone acting from prejudice and unprincipled thinking.

Such behavior is one example of the dark side of humanity.

And one purpose of rights is to protect us from such behavior.

Because rights are meant to protect people from the dark side of  humanity, it is important that we give some right to undocumented immigrants.

After all, immigrants can suffer unjustly from the dark side of  humanity, just like citizens can.

One right we give to undocumented immigrants is the right to due process, which means that our court procedures have to be fair and transparent.

Otherwise, we risk deporting an undocumented immigrant who has been granted asylum or who might be here for legitimate reasons.

Senator Chris Van Hollen talking with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

For example, in the Trespasser Scenario, you have a good reason to trespass in the warehouse: you are trying to save your life.

In the same way, many undocumented immigrants flee to the U.S. because their life is in danger.

While they may not be able to stay in the United States forever, many such immigrants have the right to stay temporarily as they arrange for safe living conditions somewhere else.

But another reason we give all immigrants basic rights like due process is because of human error and prejudice.

In the absence of such rights, we risk assuming an immigrant is here illegally when they are in fact a citizen of the United States.

You can read here about recent situations in which this has happened.

Obviously, just because someone looks a certain way, doesn’t mean they are in the United States illegally and should be deported.

Similarly, just because someone wears a Metallica t-shirt doesn’t mean they are a part of a satanic cult.

All of us, immigrants and citizens, have a right to due process to give us a chance to plead our case.

Example:

“This is why I had to enter a warehouse illegally.”

Or, “This is why I had to enter the U.S. illegally.

And all of us have a right to hear the evidence presented against us.

Example:

“Just because I wear a Metallica t-shirt and someone says I am in a cult doesn’t mean I am in a cult.”

Picture courtesy of Unsplash.

Or,

“Just because I wear a certain shirt or hat and someone says I am part of a gang doesn’t mean I am a part of a gang.”

The primary purpose of the courts, especially the Supreme Court, is to protect our rights.

So, in this post, I want to focus on the fact that the President deported Garcia wrongly and deprived him of due process.

And when the Supreme Court pointed this out and ordered the President to return Garcia because his rights had been violated, the President refused.

Now, I am concerned about Garcia because I would want someone to be concerned about me if I was in a similar situation.

But to be honest, I am also concerned about Garcia because I am concerned about me and my family, as well as you and your family.

Right now, President Trump’s careless deportation of Garcia is a serious concern.

It demonstrates a grave disregard of rights.

In essence, the Supreme Court has said, “You have violated this man’s rights and broken the law, and you have to fix the situation.”

And the President has more or less responded, “I don’t care.”

The President and other people associated with the deportation have repeatedly referred to Garcia as a violent gang member.

But Garcia hasn’t broken any laws.

And he hasn’t been convicted of any crime.

Additionally, a judge permitted Garcia to stay in the U.S. temporarily because an actual gang in El Salvador threatened his life.

And in fact, judge Paula Xinis who looked at the evidence that supposedly proved Garcia was a part of a gang wrote,

The ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived.

In other words, Garcia has suffered deportation simply because the President and other government officials thought he looked like a gang member, and someone said he was a part of a gang.

He’s a lot like the person in the Trespasser Scenario.

The fact that the President has deprived Garcia of due process and refuses to heed the Supreme Court suggests that the President is acting according to self-serving interest, unprincipled passions, and prejudice.

By the way, the President has behaved like this before, even towards U.S. citizens who are his loyal followers. (You can read more about this here: When Does the Right Becomes Dangerous? It may Surprise You.)

(You can also read about it here.)

His behavior isn’t normal or acceptable. (You can read more here about why Trump’s defiance of the courts is unprecedented.)

And such behavior is what concerns me the most right now about Garcia’s case.

Because once a ruler like a President decides that people’s rights don’t matter, his disregard extends to you and me and other U.S. citizens.

That’s what self-interest, unprincipled passions, and prejudice does: it disregards the rights of everyone, including you and me.

So, I am concerned about Kilmar Abrego Garcia because he is a human being.

But I am also concerned because he is you. And he is me.

The other day I called my representatives to ask for Garcia’s release. If you feel so inclined, I encourage you to do the same.

You might also like this post: Irish Immigrants, Weird Rumors, and the Elections.

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[1] No offense to Metallica fans. I grew up in the 80s and heard these kinds of comments all the time.

For example, here is an actual conversation I once had with someone.

Person (referring to 80s metal bands): With one strum of the guitar, the devil can enter your soul.

Me: That doesn’t sound right.