I've said he needs to be returned and if the Trump admin ultimately refuses to comply with clear as day court orders then we are truly entering a new and frightening era.
But no, I don't have a problem with Salvadorans being returned to El Salvador. If some of them want to try their luck entering illegally and hoping for a reprieve then the minimum they need to do is avoid somehow finding themselves being brought into custody with gang members, to say nothing of having protective orders filed against them.
Sure they need to make it right but all that means is bringing him back and giving him his hearing. I have no idea whether or not he is a gang member but someone in the country illegally caught twice with people who apparently are gang members is enough for me to say he should not be allowed to stay. I'm on the side of the rule of law and rewarding guys like Garcia makes the law an ass.
He does though. He entered the country illegally and has been arrested twice now in the company of gang members, plus his wife has filed a protective order against him. He is a bad fit as an immigrant and should ultimately be repatriated to his country.
Dude was caught with his little gangster buddies at the IKEA I shop at. I can already see the local news headline in 5 years when he he's arrested for some serious crime yet people are mystified as to how someone like this was still in the country despite being apprehended twice by the authorities.
I don't know why you'd think Trump is scared but one hopes this combined with the strongly worded 4th Circuit decision yesterday is a step back from the brink. They need to bring the guy back, have his hearing, then hopefully promptly send him back to El Salvador where he belongs.
I am throwing this out there everywhere I comment in case relevant to anyone including any lurkers. It came to my attention yesterday that Pam Bondi's brother Brad is running for president of the DC Bar association. I typically don't pay attention to these but any other DC barred attorneys should vote just to vote against him. Voting open until June 4. I don't know that the DC Bar does anything important but the last thing we need is another hanger on of these people getting authority over anything, no matter how small.
I think there was a really sad , destructive, and downright cynical in many corners complacency about the mostly, relatively normal for a Republican administration, appointments during Trump 1.0. For v 2.0 we are running an experiment to see what happens when you put the dumbest and craziest people possible in charge of organs of the state.
I can't speak for Jaybird or any other commenters but my goal is to defeat them. In sports losing to good teams is something that just happens but consistently getting beat, even narrowly, by the scrubs of the scrubs is a failure of leadership and organizational culture. IMO that is what we need to deal with and the only sure way to take out the trash.
I hear you man but you still have to play the game well or at least well enough. And look at these people we're up against. They aren't geniuses and they aren't even particularly great at blocking and tackling yet we've lost to them 2 out of 3 times.
I think Trump is setting the stage for a backlash on a number issues. My guess is that deportation of illegal immigrants will not in itself be part of it but highly publicized cruelty and defying the courts might well be.* In the mean time there are human beings caught in the middle of it and it has been bad for them and bad for the rule of law to use them in a kind of game of chicken, or as pawns in our own longstanding failure to fix the immigration system.
*If he succeeds in crashing the economy as he seems hell bent on doing all of the immigration stuff will be but a footnote in the comeuppance.
I don't see it that way and I think what's happened to the Republican party cuts to the opposite conclusion in terms of how to behave. All Biden had to do to defuse this issue was leave Trump's immigration EOs in place and use his bully pulpit to tell would be illegal entrants not to take their chances, and that the expectations of the Mexican government was a continued show of force, including remain in Mexico. You can probably do that and maybe still even get away with occasionally championing the cause of certain easy cases like the Obama admin did. Point being when youre facing an internal threat of the nature Trump poses the last thing you do is throw open the gates to a massive influx of irregular immigration.
I think that's a misread of the political dynamic. Cruelty and being vindictive will not play well, especially when it is so trivially easy to trot out the most sympathetic cases on the wrong side of it (and Garcia isn't even one of those). The error is taking that as evidence that the American people are actually in favor of allowing any person from a country with law and order problems, which is basically all of them south of the Rio Grande, a pass to get in and stay indefinitely. The result is a whiplash of low enforcement to increasingly authoritarian enforcement from administration to administration. Which goes back to my original point that signaling to people that they should take their chances during a low enforcement stretch is not doing them any favors.
I don't think that's entirely right. The most important part of how we got here remains Congressional Republicans refusal to take deals multiple times they've been on the table because they preferred the issue to a solution. It's a major factor in why the old guard lost their party to MAGA. Democrats don't own that and an inconsistent willingness to defend rule of law on principle is better than unwillingness to ever do it at all. However the politics of this issue are what they are and the best way to fight back against the madness is to accept that and start pivoting accordingly. The courts are not able to save us from every bad result of an election and it was foolishness to think they could.
Not when something within a stone's throw of those views make up a majority of voters in a democracy. Those who have been broadcasting out into the world that anyone who makes it in has a good chance of staying indefinitely under some previously obscure loophole do not have clean hands.
It all starts with grasping that a combination of executive action, the judiciary, and the immigration bar, have succeeded in turning a bunch of laws written with the horrors of the middle 20th century in mind into a pretext for a de facto immigration policy so toxic to the public even the politicians who implicitly support it don't dare say so. Trump probably isn't possible without it.
This has to be unprecedented in modern US history in terms of being totally self inflicted. It's going to be a kick right in the balls to the average household. All I can say is I hope his supporters learn their lesson, and if they haven't yet, well, I'm sure we can count on many more opportunities to come. We aren't even a tenth of the way through.
To be clear I'm really talking about taking the L and conceding the issue for the near future, with the only sticking point being humane treatment for those attempting to cross or who are caught internally as we send them back. There's no compromise on the table right now and every time I look at polls the Democrats are rated almost as badly as Republicans are on abortion, so not the neighborhood we want to be in. Better to focus on other things and get back to immigration when the opportunity re-opens, as it will one day.
I take the positions I do on this subject not because I'm secretly some super restrictionist but because I think it's the compromise that would serve to save everything else important.
As I understand it he was granted something other than asylum called 'withholding of removal.' This is not my area of law and someone with more expertise can correct me. However as I read the facts of his case there is probably not a single person in El Salvador, other than maybe Bukele himself, who would not potentially qualify for this kind of relief.
I don't disagree with you in principle Burt but I think the solution is a little different. You're also ignoring what will be the most important factors for those who support what Trump is doing. Those are (i) Garcia entered the country illegally and (ii) his permission to stay was based on a highly tenuous judicial interpretation of immigration law that has virtually no popular support and no basis in the higher law that is the constitution itself.
The way to correct this to avoid recurrence is for Congress to pass a law tightening things up so that people like Garcia are never allowed to stay in the US to begin with, and that the kinds of nebulous fears of criminal activity in their nation of origin are no longer sufficient grounds to be granted legal status.
Garcia is probably f-ed but the reason it happened is the abdication of duty by Congress. That void is what has put the executive and the judiciary on a collision course. Obviously it would be much better to have an executive with the sense and wisdom to understand the folly of that path but here we are.
I think the reality is that hes just as much of the scummy, un-American, nasty as*hole people, including those who know him best, have been saying he is for years. He doesn't care about anything and he's a huge danger to the country. People saw he was a monkey and handed him a hand grenade anyway.
I'm pretty pissed about it. I'm also pissed about the years long shredding of credibility that's made it impossible to stand up against this kind of thing without having a debate over why it is millions of people were encouraged to enter illegally (including this dude) under the faulty belief they'd be allowed to stay indefinitely, pending some political settlement that may or may not occur. These people, including Garcia have not been served well by any of this and while Trump owns his authoritarianism and the constitutional disaster this is shaping up to be, I still think anyone who has been arguing in favor unchecked illegal entry and/or sham asylum has their own ownership stake in this mess. I hope they're happy with it.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
I've said he needs to be returned and if the Trump admin ultimately refuses to comply with clear as day court orders then we are truly entering a new and frightening era.
But no, I don't have a problem with Salvadorans being returned to El Salvador. If some of them want to try their luck entering illegally and hoping for a reprieve then the minimum they need to do is avoid somehow finding themselves being brought into custody with gang members, to say nothing of having protective orders filed against them.
"
Sure they need to make it right but all that means is bringing him back and giving him his hearing. I have no idea whether or not he is a gang member but someone in the country illegally caught twice with people who apparently are gang members is enough for me to say he should not be allowed to stay. I'm on the side of the rule of law and rewarding guys like Garcia makes the law an ass.
Regarding the politics of the situation I see it differently. The last thing we want to do while we are trying to preserve our system of government from an authoritarian maniac is to make a cause celebré of an illegal alien who spends his time in front of big box stores with MS-13 members.
"
He does though. He entered the country illegally and has been arrested twice now in the company of gang members, plus his wife has filed a protective order against him. He is a bad fit as an immigrant and should ultimately be repatriated to his country.
Dude was caught with his little gangster buddies at the IKEA I shop at. I can already see the local news headline in 5 years when he he's arrested for some serious crime yet people are mystified as to how someone like this was still in the country despite being apprehended twice by the authorities.
"
I don't know why you'd think Trump is scared but one hopes this combined with the strongly worded 4th Circuit decision yesterday is a step back from the brink. They need to bring the guy back, have his hearing, then hopefully promptly send him back to El Salvador where he belongs.
"
I am throwing this out there everywhere I comment in case relevant to anyone including any lurkers. It came to my attention yesterday that Pam Bondi's brother Brad is running for president of the DC Bar association. I typically don't pay attention to these but any other DC barred attorneys should vote just to vote against him. Voting open until June 4. I don't know that the DC Bar does anything important but the last thing we need is another hanger on of these people getting authority over anything, no matter how small.
"
True, but no death penalty in NY. I believe it's the feds pursuing it.
"
One never wants to predict an outcome but I would think chances are high he gets it. Message being sent right back kind of thing.
"
Who on Earth is Nick Decker?
"
I think there was a really sad , destructive, and downright cynical in many corners complacency about the mostly, relatively normal for a Republican administration, appointments during Trump 1.0. For v 2.0 we are running an experiment to see what happens when you put the dumbest and craziest people possible in charge of organs of the state.
On “The Lawless Lying Duplicitous Bastards of Abrego Garcia”
I can't speak for Jaybird or any other commenters but my goal is to defeat them. In sports losing to good teams is something that just happens but consistently getting beat, even narrowly, by the scrubs of the scrubs is a failure of leadership and organizational culture. IMO that is what we need to deal with and the only sure way to take out the trash.
"
I hear you man but you still have to play the game well or at least well enough. And look at these people we're up against. They aren't geniuses and they aren't even particularly great at blocking and tackling yet we've lost to them 2 out of 3 times.
"
I think Trump is setting the stage for a backlash on a number issues. My guess is that deportation of illegal immigrants will not in itself be part of it but highly publicized cruelty and defying the courts might well be.* In the mean time there are human beings caught in the middle of it and it has been bad for them and bad for the rule of law to use them in a kind of game of chicken, or as pawns in our own longstanding failure to fix the immigration system.
*If he succeeds in crashing the economy as he seems hell bent on doing all of the immigration stuff will be but a footnote in the comeuppance.
"
I don't see it that way and I think what's happened to the Republican party cuts to the opposite conclusion in terms of how to behave. All Biden had to do to defuse this issue was leave Trump's immigration EOs in place and use his bully pulpit to tell would be illegal entrants not to take their chances, and that the expectations of the Mexican government was a continued show of force, including remain in Mexico. You can probably do that and maybe still even get away with occasionally championing the cause of certain easy cases like the Obama admin did. Point being when youre facing an internal threat of the nature Trump poses the last thing you do is throw open the gates to a massive influx of irregular immigration.
"
I think that's a misread of the political dynamic. Cruelty and being vindictive will not play well, especially when it is so trivially easy to trot out the most sympathetic cases on the wrong side of it (and Garcia isn't even one of those). The error is taking that as evidence that the American people are actually in favor of allowing any person from a country with law and order problems, which is basically all of them south of the Rio Grande, a pass to get in and stay indefinitely. The result is a whiplash of low enforcement to increasingly authoritarian enforcement from administration to administration. Which goes back to my original point that signaling to people that they should take their chances during a low enforcement stretch is not doing them any favors.
"
I don't think that's entirely right. The most important part of how we got here remains Congressional Republicans refusal to take deals multiple times they've been on the table because they preferred the issue to a solution. It's a major factor in why the old guard lost their party to MAGA. Democrats don't own that and an inconsistent willingness to defend rule of law on principle is better than unwillingness to ever do it at all. However the politics of this issue are what they are and the best way to fight back against the madness is to accept that and start pivoting accordingly. The courts are not able to save us from every bad result of an election and it was foolishness to think they could.
"
Not when something within a stone's throw of those views make up a majority of voters in a democracy. Those who have been broadcasting out into the world that anyone who makes it in has a good chance of staying indefinitely under some previously obscure loophole do not have clean hands.
It all starts with grasping that a combination of executive action, the judiciary, and the immigration bar, have succeeded in turning a bunch of laws written with the horrors of the middle 20th century in mind into a pretext for a de facto immigration policy so toxic to the public even the politicians who implicitly support it don't dare say so. Trump probably isn't possible without it.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
This has to be unprecedented in modern US history in terms of being totally self inflicted. It's going to be a kick right in the balls to the average household. All I can say is I hope his supporters learn their lesson, and if they haven't yet, well, I'm sure we can count on many more opportunities to come. We aren't even a tenth of the way through.
"
Dollar down 10% since inauguration day as investors abandoning it due to tariff chaos. Yikes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/15/dollar-investors-treasuries-safety/
On “The Lawless Lying Duplicitous Bastards of Abrego Garcia”
To be clear I'm really talking about taking the L and conceding the issue for the near future, with the only sticking point being humane treatment for those attempting to cross or who are caught internally as we send them back. There's no compromise on the table right now and every time I look at polls the Democrats are rated almost as badly as Republicans are on abortion, so not the neighborhood we want to be in. Better to focus on other things and get back to immigration when the opportunity re-opens, as it will one day.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
Good.
On “The Lawless Lying Duplicitous Bastards of Abrego Garcia”
I take the positions I do on this subject not because I'm secretly some super restrictionist but because I think it's the compromise that would serve to save everything else important.
"
As I understand it he was granted something other than asylum called 'withholding of removal.' This is not my area of law and someone with more expertise can correct me. However as I read the facts of his case there is probably not a single person in El Salvador, other than maybe Bukele himself, who would not potentially qualify for this kind of relief.
"
I don't disagree with you in principle Burt but I think the solution is a little different. You're also ignoring what will be the most important factors for those who support what Trump is doing. Those are (i) Garcia entered the country illegally and (ii) his permission to stay was based on a highly tenuous judicial interpretation of immigration law that has virtually no popular support and no basis in the higher law that is the constitution itself.
The way to correct this to avoid recurrence is for Congress to pass a law tightening things up so that people like Garcia are never allowed to stay in the US to begin with, and that the kinds of nebulous fears of criminal activity in their nation of origin are no longer sufficient grounds to be granted legal status.
Garcia is probably f-ed but the reason it happened is the abdication of duty by Congress. That void is what has put the executive and the judiciary on a collision course. Obviously it would be much better to have an executive with the sense and wisdom to understand the folly of that path but here we are.
"
I think the reality is that hes just as much of the scummy, un-American, nasty as*hole people, including those who know him best, have been saying he is for years. He doesn't care about anything and he's a huge danger to the country. People saw he was a monkey and handed him a hand grenade anyway.
"
I'm pretty pissed about it. I'm also pissed about the years long shredding of credibility that's made it impossible to stand up against this kind of thing without having a debate over why it is millions of people were encouraged to enter illegally (including this dude) under the faulty belief they'd be allowed to stay indefinitely, pending some political settlement that may or may not occur. These people, including Garcia have not been served well by any of this and while Trump owns his authoritarianism and the constitutional disaster this is shaping up to be, I still think anyone who has been arguing in favor unchecked illegal entry and/or sham asylum has their own ownership stake in this mess. I hope they're happy with it.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.