What began as an ordinary traffic stop for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father, escalated into a nightmare scenario. He was deported to El Salvador’s mega prison, CECOT, because of what the Trump administration has admitted was an “administrative error” and has refused to bring him back to the U.S.
Now, Kilmar sits at the center of this ongoing legal battle.
Prior to this, many legal experts were concerned about issues of free speech, Democracy and whether our country was on the brink of a Constitutional crisis. The worry sparked when the Trump administration started sending people to Guantánamo Bay and when it targeted Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, which Latino USA reported on. But Kilmar’s case has tipped the scale.
“We are in a moment of constitutional crisis,” said Elora Mukherjee, a lawyer, professor and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. “Depending on the choices we collectively make at this point, we will save our constitutional democracy, or our nation will fall to authoritarianism.”
Today on Latino USA, Maria Hinojosa speaks with Elora Mukherjee. She helps break down what Kilmar’s case means for everyday Americans, the future of American Democracy and more.
You’ll also hear exclusive reporting about a Venezuelan man, with no criminal record, who was also sent to El Salvador, most likely because of his tattoos.
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This episode was produced by Reynaldo Leaños Jr. and edited by Andrea López-Cruzado and Fernanda Echavarri. It was fact-checked by Roxana Aguirre, and mixed by Stephanie Lebow and Leah Shaw Dameron.
Featured illustration by Alex Charner.
Outstanding coverage. The questions about how we got to this point resonate loudly. I started law school in 1982, the same year the Federalist Society started. The current coup’s preceding political, cultural and other power moves have been right in my face now for 43 years. I have not been quiet or resigned or acquiescent in any way; I have loudly complained and energetically resisted this shit all along! I can’t believe what is happening, how or the implications – even tho nothing this regime’s second iteration has done in 100 days has surprised me at all!
I lived thru emergency management in Detroit 10-15 years ago, and of course the global war on terror, the climate meltdown and the other elements of the polycrisis inform my analysis. Mostly, as a Detroiter, I still can’t believe it has happened – is happening. Maria and Elora verbalizes the questions we are all asking ourselves about ourselves and everything else. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this. I’m sharing with my Native American high school students in Albuquerque Public Schools. This website has been blocked by APS for some reason. I am submitting a request ot unblock this story. I don’t know why Albuqueque Public Schools has blocked this site, which, to me would seem to be an educational site for information, which would be important for our majority-minority population of hispanic and xicano students.