Supreme Court Says Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia Stays In Prison, But The Government Really Should Explain Itself

Government: NAH

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia

Last night, the Supreme Court deigned to weigh in on the part of the case of Kristi Noem v. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in which Abrego Garcia is being mistakenly held by oops … too late! “accident” in El Salvador’s mega-torture prison, opining that the district court judge may have exceeded her authority in saying the government had to not just “facilitate” but also “effectuate” Abrego Garcia's return.

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Roberts Court Making Up New Laws For Trump Again

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The decision means the administration does not have to make any kind of effort to actually return Abrego Garcia to the United States, as of now, because the judge-imposed deadline has expired. But the government “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps,” the unsigned decision said. And, “the District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

Oh, fuck you. What if the government is like “we took NO steps, and we’re not gonna take any, and you must defer to us,” what happens then? “Pretending to be blind and stalling when it comes to seeing where everything is very obviously headed so as to help Trump do more fascism” is a John Roberts trademark.

And immediately back in district court in Maryland, instead of explaining itself as ordered, the government filed for even more of an extension, which Abrego Garcia’s lawyers noted was:

another stunning display of arrogance and cruelty. It did not take that time to ponder whether to remove Garcia—which it effectuated within 72 hours of his unlawful seizure—and it does not need that time to comply with this Court’s and the Supreme Court’s rulings.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the migrants kidnapped to El Salvador should be there “for the rest of their lives,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi, on Wednesday, admitted the government made a mistake, but they want him to stay in torture prison anyway:

“First of all, it was an administrative error, as to why he was deported, and he is a known gang member, ICE testified he was a gang member.”

Oh, well, there should be no problem with giving the guy some due process then, right? Haha, no. You see, the defense had argued that he was a journeyman, and he was training to be an electrician, but the last violent gang member ICE arrested was hanging wallpaper at The Villages, and there was another violent member living in a nice neighborhood with WREATHS on the door, and children’s bicycles in it too. So ergo therefore QED Abrego Garcia COULD have been a criminal too, right? The fact that he was never arrested for anything and probably pretending to be an electrician just proves what a slippery criminal he surely is!

Guess we re-wrote the Bill of Rights and added a part where people can be detained indefinitely in foreign prison based on no evidence but the activities of people whom they’ve never met, because the Attorney General’s got a vaguely racist gut feeling.

Is it even worth mentioning that Trump’s EO declared Tren de Aragua the terrorist organization we are at war with, but Abrego Garcia is being accused of being a member of an entirely different gang from a whole other country?

Meanwhile, in the case of Columbia University graduate student and activist Mahmoud Khalil, who’s being held in an immigration detention facility in Louisiana, an immigration judge told the government on Tuesday to make with the evidence that Khalil was involved with Hamas, somehow, or she’s going to throw the whole case out.

The response of the State Department? Khalil had engaged in THOUGHTCRIMES, and so isn’t that practically the same thing? The government’s lawyers submitted an undated memo, in which Marco Rubio admitted that Khalil’s activities were “lawful,” HOWEVER, letting him remain in the country would have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” and undermine the “US policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”

Protesting the actions of the US and Israeli governments is, of course, not antisemitism. Even 70 percent of Israelis do not trust the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Khalil has not been charged with harassment of anyone, or any other crimes. And it does not get any more First-Amendment-y than people having the right to speak their minds to criticize the government. The First Amendment does not have a carveout for immigrants not counting as “people.” In fact, quite a few of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, like Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, Thomas Fitzsimons, and Robert Morris, were immigrants themselves.

And WOW is Khalil not alone in this situation. Inside Higher Ed is keeping a tracker and has identified more than 640 foreign students at more than 120 colleges who have had their F-1 or J-1 student visas revoked for free speaking, students and professors are fleeing and lawsuits are flying.

A federal judge in New York ruled two weeks ago that Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old student from South Korea, cannot be deported for attending a protest at Barnard, and on Wednesday a judge ruled that Dartmouth student Xiaotian Liu was to have his legal status reinstated. Scores of other lawsuits continue, including from the ACLU, Cornell students and a professor, the American Association of University Professors, a Georgetown University researcher from India, and Tufts University kidnapped grad student Turkish national Rümeysa Öztürk.

Hey, sure is weird how quiet colleges and universities have been about all of this, huh? Especially the biggest, richest schools that have the most power to speak out, and also the most to lose as American universities and research institutions go from the envy of the world to being decimated and brain-drained from cut funding, travel warnings, and attacks on speech.

Tufts made a statement about Rümeysa Öztürk: “Our international students, faculty, and staff are vital to deliver on the education, teaching, research, and public service mission of Tufts University. [...] The free movement of our international community members is … essential to the functioning of the University and serving our mission.” And Columbia Journalism School issued a statement on the detention of Khalil: “These actions represent threats against political speech and the ability of the American press to do its essential job and are part of a larger design to silence voices that are out of favor with the current administration.”

But if any other colleges and universities have made a public statement condemning their students getting surprise-kicked out, we missed it. Sure hope we just missed it, Cornell, Dartmouth and Georgetown! Please tell us we missed it! We would LOVE to be corrected here!

Georgetown and 85 other universities did file an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in American Association of University Professors (AAUP) v. Rubio on Wednesday, so there’s that. But with Trump warning that there’s “many more to come,” one would expect a lot more volume from officials at the schools with millions, collectively billions, and reputations as thought leaders on the line.

Wouldn’t you?

[AP / Inside Higher Ed / BBC]

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