Trump Says He Could Free Abrego Garcia From El Salvador, but Won’t; The New York Times, April 30, 2025

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, The New York Times; Trump Says He Could Free Abrego Garcia From El Salvador, but Won’t

"President Trump, whose administration has insisted it could not bring Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador to the United States, said he does have the ability to help return the wrongly deported Maryland man, but is not willing to do so because he believes he is a gang member...

Mr. Trump’s comments not only undermined previous statements by his top aides, but were a blunt sign of his administration’s intention to double down and defy the courts. Before the interview with ABC News, the administration had dug in on its refusal to heed the Supreme Court order to help return Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is a Salvadoran migrant. Trump officials have said that because he was now in a Salvadoran prison, it was up to the Salvadoran government to release him...

During the interview with ABC News, Mr. Trump also argued that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s tattooed hands were evidence of his gang ties. Mr. Trump has accused him of being a member of MS-13, previously sharing a photograph of the tattoos, altered with the label MS-13 above the symbols.

In the interview, Mr. Trump appeared to conflate the label with the actual tattoos as he argued that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a gang member.

The tattoos themselves appear to be real, but some gang experts have questioned whether they are truly MS-13 symbols."

‘We Know Donald Trump Wants the Story to Die’; The Bulwark, April 23, 2025

ADRIAN CARRASQUILLO, The Bulwark; ‘We Know Donald Trump Wants the Story to Die’

"The representatives who traveled to El Salvador also sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding the State Department continue wellness checks on Abrego Garcia, secure his access to counsel, and work for his return in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court order.

But while Abrego Garcia has garnered by far the most attention of the detainees sent to El Salvador, the four House Democrats also asked for proof of life of Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay, 19-year-old Venezuelan makeup artist whose detention has also made waves. Hernández Romero was classified as a gang member because he has tattoos that say “mom” and “dad” with crowns.

Ansari told me no one had heard from Hernández Romero, who has been documented to have no history of criminal activity, since March 14.

“Everyone is extremely worried about him,” she said from El Salvador. “We’ve had no proof of life in over a month.”

Lindsay Toczylowski, the president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which is representing Hernández Romero and nine others sent from the United States to CECOT, told The Bulwark the last person to speak to Andry was his mother. At the time he spoke with her, he thought he was being sent to Venezuela."

Appeals court won’t lift order to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s return in blistering opinion; The Hill, April 17, 2025

ZACH SCHONFELD  , The Hill; Appeals court won’t lift order to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s return in blistering opinion

"The 4th Circuit declined to put Xinis’s ruling on hold just one day after the administration filed the appeal, a swift order that came without waiting for Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to file their response.

“The relief the government is requesting is both extraordinary and premature. While we fully respect the Executive’s robust assertion of its Article II powers, we shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision,” U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel... 

The Trump administration has acknowledged he was mistakenly deported due to an “administrative error” but contends the courts are powerless to intervene because the man is no longer in U.S. custody...

“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all,” Wilkinson wrote.

“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,” he continued. “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.” 

Wilkinson, an appointee of former President Reagan, was joined on the panel by U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King, who is an appointee of former President Clinton, and U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker, who is an appointee of former President Obama."

The Emergency Is Here; The New York Times, April 17, 2025

 Ezra Klein, The New York Times; The Emergency Is Here

"The emergency is here.

The crisis is now. It is not six months away. It is not another Supreme Court ruling away from happening. It’s happening now.

Perhaps not to you, not yet. But to others. Real people. We know their names. We know their stories.

The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists. A prison known by its initials — CECOT. A prison built for disappearance. A prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, because it is a prison that does not intend to release its inhabitants back out into the world. It is a prison where the only way out, in the words of El Salvador’s so-called justice minister, is a coffin...

The Trump administration holds the view that anyone they send to El Salvador is beyond the reach of American law — they have been disappeared not only from our country but from our system — and from any protection or process that system affords.

In our prisons, prisoners can be reached by our lawyers, by our courts, by our mercy. In El Salvador, they cannot.

Names. Stories. Let me tell you one of their names, one of their stories, as best we know it."

Bring. Him. Home.; The Bulwark, April 15, 2025

JONATHAN V. LAST, The Bulwark; Bring. Him. Home.

"Five Questions

We’re going to give elected leaders in the Democratic party a charge and then talk about how the public can rally. But first, I have some questions to consider.

(1) What are the terms of the U.S. government’s contract with El Salvador for imprisonment of individuals rendered?

(2) Where in the U.S. government do the funds paid to El Salvador originate from? And who, exactly, is the payee?

(3) What are the terms of the services being contracted for? How many meals per day for the prisoners? What are the healthcare arrangements? How are these provisions itemized and invoiced? What governmental body is monitoring the contractor (and who is the contractor?) for compliance?

(4) What rules or laws govern the “corrections officers” who work at CECOT?

But most important:

(5) What are the terms of the sentences for those incarcerated at CECOT? When will they be paroled or released?

Do you believe that anyone from America who goes into CECOT will ever come out?

I do not.

This is not incarceration; it is liquidation.

Incarceration is a penal act. It is controlled by laws. There are well-understood mechanisms governing the length of terms, applications for parole, processes for release.

Liquidation is a political act. It is arbitrary, opaque, and unappealable. There are no controlling laws or processes. There is only power.

This is why Donald Trump cannot allow Kilmar Abrego Garcia to return to the United States.

And it is why the democratic opposition must go to the mattresses to bring him home."