The Constitutional Crisis Has Arrived

First off, for those who are here just for the movies, I promise you that we will get to an actual film article soon (I'm nearly done with an OVP, hopefully right after Easter, as well as am not far off from a My Ballot), but we're getting another political article today.  It is a genuinely scary time in America right now.  Getting the most headlines are tariffs, primarily because these are bread-and-butter issues that impact Americans in their immediate lives-everyone can see if the prices of avocados and their smart phones are going up in real time, and watching that disappear from your bank account can be terrifying.  Donald Trump, in less than 100 days, has not just upended the world economy, but has removed America as the leader of the international financial world, leaving room for China & the EU to take our place.  That Trump is doing so despite clear frustrations from members of his own party like Ted Cruz & Thom Tillis and showing probable signs of mental health decline (his recent physical, where they made him look to be a marathon runner despite everyone being able to see, physically, that that is not the case, is almost comical if it wasn't reality) with continual word salad answers to questions, is kind of the point of this article.  "Who can stop Trump?" has become a very serious question that needs to be asked.

But it is not the focus of the article-that is on the deportations of a number of immigrants that were currently in the United States to other countries, including students that are being targeted for their political opinions.  Perhaps the most notable is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador who was illegally deported from the United States in mid-March.

First, let's get a couple of facts in order about Kilmar Abrego Garcia (age 29), and what is & isn't true about his status, given that there's a lot of misinformation about his case circulating right now.  Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador, though his brother Cesar, his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura & son are all American citizens.  Abrego Garcia did illegally immigrate to the United States at the age of 16 (in 2011), and has lived here since then.  In 2019, he was detained by ICE on suspicions that he was a gang member with MS-13, a violent gang in New York (a place that Abrego Garcia has never lived).  Abrego Garcia was given protection by a judge from being deported (notably not being granted asylum) because of the threat of gang violence were he to return to El Salvador.  He has legally been in the United States since, though because he does not qualify for asylum, he does not have an immediate or assumed path to a green card or citizenship after a period of time.  He has reported to ICE yearly for a work visa.  To date, he has not been convicted of a single crime, either in the United States or El Salvador, and there is no evidence whatsoever (other than the accusation in 2019, which was unfounded given he has never lived in New York City) that he has any connection with a crime syndicate, including MS-13.

His deportation opens up a large amount of conversation.  For starters, while his specific status does not wholly prevent deportation, the immigration judge's case had stated that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador, which meant that if ICE felt there was a compelling reason to deport Abrego Garcia, they needed to get permission from a judge to be able to do so, which they did not.  Abrego Garcia's case stands out as unique because it was the first situation where ICE did admit that they made a mistake in the case, stating that they were aware of Abrego Garcia's status, but that he was deported due to "administrative error."  Judge Paula Xinis, a federal judge in the District Court of Maryland, stated that the deportation was illegal, the matter of how Abrego Garcia was deported violated the initial immigration judge's ruling, and that he would be irreparably harmed if he were to remain in El Salvador, and the government needed to return him.  This was backed up by the a Fourth Circuit panel (unanimously), including by a judge appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, and then the Supreme Court unanimously called Abrego Garcia's deportation illegal, though it is worth noting that they said that the US needed to "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia.  The three liberal judges on the Court (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, & Ketanji Brown Jackson) did write a separate statement to provide Abrego Garcia with all due process, and Sotomayor said that Chief Justice Roberts should not have issued a temporary stay that said that the deadline imposed by Judge Xinis had been missed (essentially Sotomayor & the liberal judges said that Abrego Garcia should be returned, and that Roberts was wrong for giving Trump an extension to return Abrego Garcia, as Xinis' order should've been followed).

That's a lot of information, but if you're still following, Trump's response is why this is particularly scary.  A lot of what's happened in the past few months has been a situation where Trump did something illegal or outside of his powers, and while Congress has largely done nothing to stop it, the federal judiciary has (aided by largely Democratic Governors and Attorneys General).  You've seen this repeatedly, with everything from illegal firings in the executive branch to cancelled spending at the NIH to Gov. Janet Mills' suing for Trump withholding funds to her state.  This isn't a good process, but it is how the process is supposed to work when someone breaks the rules-checks & balances.  This situation, though, has the Trump administration questioning Xinis' authority despite the Constitution saying she has the power to be able to stop this, unless a higher Court (like the Supreme Court or the Fourth Circuit) overrules her, which has largely not been the case, save for Roberts' extension of the stay.  They have also put the case back in Xinis' Court to resolve this.  It is very clear to anyone that the Supreme Court's intention with their ruling is that Abrego Garcia should be brought back to the United States to receive due process in his deportation case, which would likely mean that (following the law) he could continue to maintain his residency his wife & child in Maryland.

Yesterday, though, Trump and El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, both openly mocked the case, stating that they have no intention of returning Abrego Garcia.  This is despite the Supreme Court ordering him to facilitate this return, and Xinis is demanding it.  This is the first real case of the Trump administration openly and flagrantly denying a Supreme Court order during his second term, and sets up a true, very black-and-white constitutional crisis.  The Constitution is very clear-the executive branch must follow what the Supreme Court says, and if they do not want to, they need to work with the legislative branch (Congress) to either pass a law to override the decision, or to impeach those justices.  The Constitution intended to make the executive branch the weakest (so that the President would not become a de facto king), and this is an exact reason for it-the executive branch getting too powerful will essentially end democracy.

Where we go from here is uncharted territory, and for all of the chatter online, it's not clear exactly what the best path is here.  While Republicans have been largely silent, Democrats have been loudly outspoken on this subject, with Sen. Chris van Hollen and Rep. Maxwell Frost both stating their intention to either meet with the El Salvadorian president or to go to El Salvador themselves to confirm Abrego Garcia's condition (it is worth noting that we have no evidence at this point that Abrego Garcia is even still alive, or if he is, what his treatment has been...perhaps one of the main reasons Trump is openly defying the Supreme Court is that he doesn't want the world to find out Abrego Garcia is dead, or if he isn't, to not have him sitting down with Lesley Stahl the second he arrives in America).  The Court could continue to make life hell for Trump (John Roberts & Amy Coney Barrett, and to a lesser degree Brett Kavanaugh & Neil Gorsuch, will be pissed that Trump is negating their power and could be vindictive in retaliation), but the real test here is that if Roberts doesn't find a way to bring Abrego Garcia to Maryland, we have essentially crossed the Rubicon into a dictatorship.  It will mean that the President can openly deport any person, including those protected by judicial order (or even, as Trump insinuated yesterday, US citizens) from the country with no recourse once that person has left the country to be able to protect them.  When Trump was elected, it was clear that he would pose a constitutional crisis at some point during his tenure, but I figured it would feel more like a trickle than an obvious, marquee-blaring situation like this.  If Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not brought back to the United States, the Trump administration has essentially made the federal judiciary powerless...and in the process, ended the American experiment started almost 250 years ago.