CovertAction Bulletin Kilmar Garcia Disappearance Triggers Constitutional Crisis
Mahmoud Khalil, likely days away from the birth of his first child, is still being held in Louisiana as his lawyers fight for his freedom after a judge ordered that he can be deported. Just Monday, Columbia student Moshen Mahdawi was detained by ICE during a regular interview as part of the citizenship process. Hundreds of students from more than 90 institutions across the country have had their student visas revoked.
And the Trump Administration is doubling down on the disappearance of hundreds to CECOT, the maximum-security prison in El Salvador. With Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele by his side on Monday in the White House, Trump suggested that US citizens could be sent to the notorious prison, saying “Homegrowns are next. The homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places. It’s not big enough.”
At the same meeting, Bukele said he would not return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who fled his home 14 years ago to escape gang violence and had an order granting him the right to stay in the United States. Garcia is married with three children and works as a first-year apprentice with SMART Local 100, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union. The Trump administration is ignoring multiple courts who have said the deportation of Garcia must be overturned, including the Supreme Court.
Is a Constitutional crisis around the corner? Is it here? And what should we make of the threats to continue these deportations and disappearances and expand them to US citizens?