04/16/2025
The Trump administration is pretending to comply with the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s infamous Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) while refusing to actually do so, Adam Serwer writes. https://theatln.tc/zWjBqEI7
During an on-camera Oval Office meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele today, President Donald Trump said the decision to return Abrego Garcia was Bukele’s. Bukele, for his part, called Abrego Garcia a “terrorist,” saying to a reporter who asked whether he would return him, “I hope you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States.”
“This rhetorical game the administration is playing, where it pretends it lacks the power to ask for Abrego Garcia to be returned while Bukele pretends he doesn’t have the power to return him, is an expression of obvious contempt for the Supreme Court—and for the rule of law,” Serwer continues. “The administration is maintaining that it has the power to send armed agents of the state to grab someone off the street and then, without a shred of due process, deport them to a gulag in a foreign country and leave them there forever. The crucial point here is that the administration’s logic means that it could do the same to American citizens.”
Trump is already contemplating this possibility. Aside from numerous public statements to that effect, Trump told Bukele, in an exchange posted on Bukele’s X feed, “Homegrowns are next. The homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places.” Loud laughter filled the Oval Office.
“If the Trump administration can defy court orders with impunity, and Congress is unwilling to act, there is no reason for it to respect the constitutional rights of American citizens either,” Serwer continues. “The Roberts Court will now have to decide whether to side with the Constitution or with a lawless president asserting the power to disappear people at will. This is not a power that any person, much less an American president, is meant to have.” https://theatln.tc/zWjBqEI7
🎨: Pool Photo / AP