Last Monday, April 14, revcom.us posted two articles dealing with the rapidly escalating moves by the Trump regime to consolidate a fully-fascist control over all of society, especially focusing on the outrageous deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and other migrants into a hellish prison in El Salvador, and how this was bound up with shredding due process and the rule of law. (Trump and Cabinet Openly Defy Supreme Court Ruling, Claims He Does Not Have to Obey Court Orders, and The “Crazed Speed” of MAGA Fascism, the War on Immigrants, the Shredding of Rule of Law, And the Urgent Need to Defeat This Fascism—Before It's Too Late.) We encourage people to read these articles for a fuller sense of what is going on now.

The stakes in this are quite high indeed. 

In a nutshell, will there be the rule of law? That is, will people be able to know the charges against them and have a right to defend themselves against those charges in a court of law with strict rules as to evidence, arguments, and so on; or will the government be able to deny defendants their day in court and not only stuff them into prison without a trial of any kind, but send them out of the country to special prisons cut off from any contact with the “outside world”? 

Since then, there have been further major developments, and a sharpening of the battle over the two entwined issues—the cruel, unjust and outrageous deportation of immigrants to what is effectively a concentration camp, and the threatened stripping away of the most fundamental rights from everyone who resides in the U.S., citizen or non-citizen, immigrant or native born.

Things have gotten sharpest around the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old married father of three who Trump and a host of other fascist flunkies have falsely labeled a “gang member” and a “terrorist.”¹ Without any due process whatsoever, they deported him to El Salvador, entombed him in the notorious CECOT prison, and refused to bring him home—even after (at first)² admitting that his deportation had been an “administrative error.” For almost a month, Abrego Garcia had no contact with his family or his lawyer, and no news of any kind from the outside world. And, although the U.S. government admitted that it had been an “error” to deport him, they also claimed that they couldn’t, wouldn’t and shouldn’t bring him home. 

In spite of the firehose of complete lies that spewed from the Trump administration, word about what happened started to get out. Abrego Garcia’s wife, family and attorney held repeated press conferences. Very early on, beginning last Sunday, RefuseFascism.org in DC called rallies and united with others to insist on his return. Many other organizations and individuals have held protests and rallies, and signs demanding his return have become a feature at protests against many aspects of MAGA Trump fascism. Even in rural Iowa, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley found himself bombarded by angry constituents demanding to know, “Are you gonna bring that guy back from El Salvador?” 

This has also drawn further attention to the abduction, deportation and imprisonment of several hundred Venezuelan migrants at CECOT, as well has hundreds more being held in ICE prisons in Texas and slated for deportation. Moreover, this has shown a light on, again, the overarching question of constitutional rights to due process being stripped away, and Trump acting like a law unto himself, as if the judiciary (the courts) have no authority over him—that he is “above the law.”

A Society Increasingly Polarized Around Rule of Law

In the same period, a number of federal courts, including some controlled by very conservative judges, ruled against the Trump regime on different aspects of these deportations. One issue was Trump’s claim that once ICE put a migrant in a foreign prison they were no longer in U.S. “custody” and so therefore there was nothing that could be done to get them back. A federal judge ruled that this argument would give the government the power to “whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done.... It takes no small amount of imagination to understand that this is a path of perfect lawlessness, one that courts cannot condone.”

Mainstream opinion journalists have also begun sounding alarm bells about what is going on. David Brooks, a conservative columnist writing in the New York Times, called for “a comprehensive national civic uprising.… The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.” Brooks advocated a combination of “lawsuits, mass rallies, strikes, work slowdowns, boycotts and other forms of noncooperation and resistance.” 

Senator Gains Visit with Abrego Garcia

In the midst of all this, Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador in an attempt to meet with Abrego Garcia. Initially he was completely stonewalled. In fact, when he and Abrego Garcia’s attorney attempted to drive to the prison, armed Salvadoran police pulled their car over and stopped them from proceeding. The vice-president of El Salvador told him flat out he would not be able to see Abrego Garcia.

But all this drew a lot of world attention to the whole fascist arrangement between El Salvador and the U.S. and it seems that on some level the fascists felt they had to make some small concession. So they allowed Abrego Garcia to meet with his attorney and Van Hollen for an hour, which at least made it possible for Abregp Garcia to get news of his family, and of the movement to free him, and to update Van Hollen on his situation—including the fact that he had been moved to a different prison! But no sooner was it over than Salvadoran President Bukele and Trump made it clear that Abrego Garcia would remain in prison—possibly forever!

Friday Night Mass Kidnaping Narrowly Averted—for Now…

All this in turn likely had an influence on the courts. There are multiple legal cases ongoing in relation to the deportations. In one of the sharpest, hundreds of Venezuelans are in Texas ICE prisons pending deportation to El Salvador’s prison system. ACLU lawyers have tried to get injunctions in various courts to prevent that, but some federal courts in Texas have prevented this, using what amount to bullshit technicalities. But early on Saturday morning, the Supreme Court—and let’s remember, this is a fascist-dominated Court that has played a major role in establishing Trump’s almost unrestrained power—voted 7 to 2 to temporarily block all deportations of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—the law Trump had been using to justify these deportations.

Conclusion

Overall, the struggle that has been uncorked in response to these fascist moves is significant and positive, both in the fight against deportations and in the fight to defeat MAGA fascism. But three important points must be kept in mind.

First, this is a very complicated situation in which a wide array of class forces, including some (like some on the U.S. Supreme Court) that are quite reactionary, have entered into the fray in opposition—to some degree—to Trump’s immediate agenda. These forces have their own reasons—which are not completely clear—for taking these steps, and they cannot be relied upon to lead this struggle. But it would be a big mistake to dismiss the significance of these developments for the overall fight to make Trump GO—NOW!!

Second, even as this has been going on, Trump and his crew have been escalating and broadening their attacks on immigrants, as well as their overall drive to consolidate a fascist regime. Just this week:

• ICE agents attempted to enter elementary schools in immigrant areas in Los Angeles, falsely claiming that children’s families had asked them to conduct a “welfare check”;
• Federal agents in paramilitary gear boarded an Amtrak train at the Havre, Montana stop, questioning everyone on the train about their citizenship;
• The U.S. State Department has revoked almost 1,500 visas of foreign students, and has continued to abduct foreign students, including one who was seized at his final naturalization interview—the last step before becoming a citizen;
• The U.S. government has been “broadly and haphazardly” emailing threatening letters to immigrants, many with legal status, many without, as well as some immigration lawyers who are U.S. citizens, threatening that “If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States.”

These are just a few of the ways that the fascist regime is seeking to spread terror—including among people who have legal status, or even citizenship—and to drive them out of the country.

Third, and very important: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, along with hundreds of  Venezuelan  migrants, is still rotting in El Salvador’s hellhole prisons.

This struggle must continue—and intensify—as part of the whole struggle to make it impossible for Trump to govern or implement his fascist program, with millions in the street to make good on the demand TRUMP MUST GO—NOW!