Summary
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to El Salvador to seek the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident wrongfully deported in March.
Abrego Garcia, married to a U.S. citizen with three children, was legally allowed to stay under a 2019 court order.
The Trump administration admitted his deportation was an “administrative error” but refused his return. The Supreme Court ruled against the administration 9-0.
In response, the White House launched a smear campaign against Van Hollen, framing Garcia as a gang member despite no charges or convictions.
Van Hollen did the right thing and it should be recognized. It’s time to stand up to this fucking regime in any way we can.
He had to know this was going to happen.
I’m just amazed at how incredibly ballsy it is for him to go down there knowing that doing so is basically kicking a hornet’s nest of entitled fascists that have already defined themselves by ignoring orders from the court.
Yeah it feels a bit like daring them to make the move and take the mask off. It takes balls and I’m all for it. Show America who we voted for, on both sides.
He’s just doing his job, and honoring the oath to uphold and defend the US Constitution. And for that we should applaud him, when many others have failed to do their jobs and uphold their oath.
Reminds me of the congressman who went down to Jones Town.
Hopefully this has a better outcome
at the same time they allowed A gop clown to visit the CECOT, to get a thumbs up and a photo op.
If Trump is dissing somebody, that’s a good indicator they’re alright.
A court has demanded the Trump admin return this man, and their defense has been that they don’t have the power to do it. Now they publicly criticize a Senator for trying to get the man returned.
They really are stupid when it comes to undermining their own case, aren’t they?
They really are stupid when it comes to undermining their own case, aren’t they?
No, they are not. It’s a mistake to think of them as stupid, as that leads to underestimating the threat they pose.
They don’t care about winning this case in the conventional sense. Trump and his allies couldn’t care less what happens to Kilmar Abrego Garcia; what they’re after is the power to exile or imprison people without due process of law.
To be fair, Trump really is pretty stupid. His handlers aren’t.
A lot of his handlers are also stupid, especially this term. Some of them aren’t, so there’s still a chance of a coherent plan coming through, but most of the time it’s just stupidity.
No, there absolutely is a coherent plan, it’s just that part of that plan is to create chaos and the appearance of incoherence. We absolutely should keep that straight.
It’s also true that Trump’s orbit contains a lot of other useful idiots, but they are hangers-on, not who I would consider to be his handlers.
Of course it does take a certain kind of idiot to ever embrace fascism, but we can’t mistake that for incompetence.
They are stupid. It’s required for fascism to fascist.
It’s because they are stupid it makes them dangerous. They will say “NO I AM RIGHT!” when the obvious answer sits in front of them.
They JUST DON’T CARE.
Don’t give them credit for a “well thought our plan.” This regime will destroy itself, with or without resistance. Look at Putin’s Russia. When he dies, there will be a massive power struggle and no one knows what the fuck will happen.
We have far more to fear from stupid people than we do from evil people- Dietrich Bonhoeffer https://bigthink.com/thinking/bonhoeffers-theory-stupidity-evil/
They don’t want this guy to be free and doing a press tour about his experience.
Can’t release a dead body.
They really are stupid when it comes to undermining their own case, aren’t they?
No. They don’t care about “making a case”. They don’t have to. They don’t care if what they say is wrong or ridiculous–note how they were smirking as they said all the fake excuses in their press conference. They know they’re stupid fake excuses and they know everyone else knows it. They don’t care. They’re having a blast. They’re flaunting their power and daring anyone to try and stop them.
They have no case, besides “you can’t make me.”
Do they ever care? Just keep gaslighting.
The news can never catch up to all the atrocities happening simultaneously.
The reaction of these people to a senator traveling to another country to try to correct their admitted mistake is fucking disgusting.
I feel like the US is really not getting the memo here, this is fascist dictatorship swaddled in an American flag. This is what dictators do, the next steps are dismantling the other institutions and agencies that could potentially preserve the old country’s rules and laws. As they are already doing blatantly.
Guys… the US is falling. Why aren’t people organizing?
We have been. You may have heard of the 50501 protests. If not, I recommend looking into it. There are two problems though. First, the corporate media is largely not covering the protests because they haven’t turned into riots. As the adage goes, “if it bleeds, it leads”. Second, Americans are generally not inclined to riot, because our police are more heavily armed than a lot of military forces around the world. When we do riot, the corporate media clutches their pearls and wags their fingers, painting the entire movement as a bunch of criminals looking for a reason to loot. This influences even our most ardent allies in Congress to distance themselves from the movement, resulting in little to no change in policies.
Honestly, it’s going to take a lot more than protests and even riots to get out of this, if it’s even possible.
Their entire world view is based on a thick stack of lies. It’s lies all the way down.
IF Van Hollen manages to return safely, he’ll have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his entire life.
But I’m not convinced he’s going to come back.
We’re not at the stage where sitting senators are being murdered or disappeared.
At the current rate, that’ll happen within months; definitely before the end of the year.
I’m gonna revisit this comment before New Years Eve. Let’s hope there’s something a bit more positive to discuss by then. But I’m not hopeful…
Maybe heart disease will have finally come through for us and rid the world of Donald Trump.
I hope you’re not wrong, but political opposition was disappeared very quickly in Nazi Germany. It really didn’t take long: Hitler was appointed chancellor on January 30th, 1933 and the first “dissidents” were disappeared the day after the Reichtagsbrand, so February 28th, 1933.
You’re not at that stage right up until the first one occurs.
I honestly believe VH will be the first because of his “audacity”. I 100% hope to be wrong though.
There’s been a hell of a lot of “we’re not at the stage…” in the last four months, that we then very much found ourselves at the stage of.
…yet…
Give us a few days.
Happened in Jonestown.
The actions of a lunatic cult leader who promptly killed the entire cult including himself afterward aren’t really comparable to the actions of governments attempting to retain the appearance of legitimacy.
aren’t really comparable to the actions of governments attempting to retain the appearance of legitimacy
I’ve seen no evidence that this government is attempting to retain the appearance of legitimacy. In fact, Trump behaves as if his orders from Putin are to undermine any and every form of institutional legitimacy, as well as crashing the economy and alienating every ally.
I would say that typically, you’d be correct… This is not typical.
That might be it, actually. He’s probably called Bukele and told him nothing will happen if he arrests and imprisons a sitting US congressman from the “opposition” party. I’m calling that out as the plan now.
That, or ICE kidnap him when he tries to return because he’s ‘obviously’ in league with the gang.
If Democrats had a spine, one of them would be telling Bukele that the pendulum will swing, and when it does, it will crush Bukele like the cockroach that he is.
The White House also brought Morin’s mother to Leavitt’s press conference today, while launching into a tirade against Abrego Garcia
Wow, that mother must be a real proud Mamma Hen, using her daughters death to politically justify abducting a human without convictions who was in Maryland legally. What a fucking disgrace.
Why has not a single reporter directly asked Trump or any of the administration what would happen if a US citizen were “accidentally” deported there?
Because they’ve took all the disloyal press off the register months ago. Only controlled journalists are allowed into the white house now.
Because they don’t want to be the US citizen in question.
They did ask this, and Trump explicitly said that they want to deport citizens. “Homegrowns” which he later clarified to mean “citizens”.
The most honest answer you would get is “Another one?”
deleted by creator
https://lemmy.world/post/28379743
Well, it might officially happen soon.
If there’s anything I’ve learned about Leon, Trump, and the other neofascists we’re bombarded with–it’s that they really really don’t like anyone questioning or disagreeing with them. It’s telling, because if they truly were confident in their words and deeds, they would have nothing to fear. Someone questioning them should be a chance for them to educate everyone on the reasons why their ideas are good… but instead it goes directly to ad hominems, bans/removals, etc. They want to think they’re brilliant, but they also don’t want to be questioned since they don’t want to risk getting dunked on in the public arena and lose credibility (but they also really don’t want to be faced with facts proving them wrong, their tremendous ego can’t handle it)
That’s because fascism relies on the “Mythic Truth.”
Their “Truth” supersedes reality. Most of the time they don’t give two shits about evidence. What they can’t stand is being told “no” or “shut up you’re being an asshole” or “fine, if you won’t do the right thing, I will.”
Yep, so we keep doing it (critiquing them) without fail and as loudly as we can forever and do our best to make them burn their candles out and finally appear as stupid as they are in front of their followers.
The family should be sueing the fuck out of every member of government for defamation. Get as much money from them while you can.
The courts have ordered the government to return him to the US, and they are refusing. What good is a court ordering the government to pay this family anything going to do?
I think this would work.
Wish I shared your confidence.
Make no mistake. Last time Trump got legitimately “thrown out of his palace” he called upon an army of insurrectionists to storm the capitol.
Now he’s back in there, surrounded by yes-men, and his insurrectionist army is pardoned and with boosted confidence that they can spread chaos without consequences. And by being POTUS many of his armed forces supporters have the “following orders” and “his elected authority” excuse to side with him against the remaining government branches and the people - even if their oath is to the constitution.
Whatever enforcement entity SCOTUS can get to impose actual consequences to this administration’s wrongdoing on April 23rd, if it comes to it, Trump won’t take it lying down. That’s a guarantee with these savages.
out of the loop european here, what’s happening on April 23rd
Pretty sure that is the deadline before criminal contempt of court charges are brought. (several people are supposed to be arrested and put in jail)
What @beernutz@lemmy.world said, pretty much.
European too here, though with a special interest in all of this since I’m one of the closest europeans to the US, living right in the middle of the Atlantic. 🙂
April 23rd will be the first day that his administrations charges for obstruction of justice are delayed / postponed because [made up reason so the judge doesn’t have to do their job].
Just like happened last time.
And the time before.
And the time before.
And here it is as foretold… The first of no doubt many “1 week extensions” to the deadline.
Jesus fucking Christ the people that write titles like this should all be rounded up and kept at least 1,000 feet from any place they could practice whatever this slop is they consider ‘journalism.’ The admin put out a few press conferences and encouraged people to make memes. “Scorched Earth” my dead grandfather’s rotten scrotum.
Also, that poor man is already dead and has been for a while now.
I kind of assume they are so adamant of not returning this guy, cause they can’t find him in their death camp. He might have been killed already.
That is what I’ve been thinking. Guy has been dead from almost day one, and in fact that is likely the point of these prison camps.
They want to be able to disappear people, and it’s a lot more effort and money to keep them alive. El Salvador is just an off site extermination facility, and they are playing “Well, we can’t bring him back” cause they won’t admit what they have done.
Sadly the injustice done to this man and the 70% to 90% of the people deported without having committed a crime is just a distraction while they plan their next financial rug pull.
The rot really has reached the core.
I think that’s only part of it. The really disturbing thing is that a significant number of his supporters actually want this and he needs to keep doing it to keep them on side.
If only there had been some way to prevent this but honestly, who hasn’t accidentally misplaced a living human being in an El Salvador torture prison once or twice? Glass houses, stones, all that.
Any American citizen is now just lucky to not run across an ICE agent having a bad day and being sent to prison for life with no trial or rights, which we were supposed to hold self evident. This isn’t America anymore. We need to take MAGA and beat it down until it’s MANA, Make America Normal Again.
Some American citizens carry, so if a so called “ICE agent” happens to try to abduct the wrong one, without refusing to identify themselves; their day will surely get worse.
