Welcome to the Sloppiest Kafka Story Ever Written...

Illegal deportations, slovenly lawlessness, and more...

The horrific case of Kilmar Abrego García reads like a Kafka story – yes, a cliché, but totally accurate. Here’s the start of the story, courtesy of the Washington Post:

In 2019, Abrego García was detained by police in Prince George’s County outside a Home Depot with several other men and asked about a murder. He repeatedly denied being in a gang or having knowledge of any crime. He was subsequently put into immigration proceedings, where officials argued he was an active member of a New York-based MS-13 group based on his Chicago Bulls gear and the word of a confidential informant.

A U.S. immigration judge ultimately released him and shielded him from deportation to El Salvador because he was likely to face persecution there by a local gang that tried to extort his family and then recruit him into their ranks before he fled the county. The Trump administration did not appeal that decision.

So, Abrego Garcia gets snatched off the street, is accused of being a gang member based on his wearing Michael Jordan gear and a tip from a “source” only ICE knows, and subject to deportation proceedings. A judge releases him based on the fact that Abrego Garcia is not a gang member but a victim of gang members, which is why he sought refuge in the United States. The same judge also pointed out that ICE’s claim that Abrego Garcia is an active gang member based in New York is bullshit, as Abrego Garcia has never been in New York (and is not in a gang). The judge also noted that Abrego Garcia was in the US legally.

Of course, Trump’s ICE wasn’t going to back down. ICE defied the judge and sent Abrego Garcia to a supermax prison in El Salvador under a very sketchy and probably illegal arrangement between El Salvador’s strongman Nayib Bukele and President Donald Trump. (Trump has suggested expanding subcontracting incarceration to El Salvador. Now he wants to ship convicted US citizens to a foreign country to serve time, something that is clearly against the law.)

Abrego Garcia’s detention was challenged in court. A lower court judge demanded his return to the US, based on part that Abrego Garcia’s right to due process was violated as he (and his fellow deportees) had no opportunity to defend themselves in court before they were shipped to El Salvador. ICE still declared Abrego Garcia “guilty,” ignoring an earlier court order, and, alone, deciding Abrego Garcia’s fate. No trial, no representation, just one government agency playing judge, jury, and executioner.

Civil rights and immigration attorneys took up Abrego Garcia’s case and got a judge to demand his return to the United States. Once again, ICE defied a court order, starting a long dance with words:

While acknowledging that he “should not have been removed to El Salvador because” of the immigration judge’s ruling, Evan C. Katz of ICE wrote that Abrego García “is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization.”

Thing is Abrego Garcia is not a MS-13 gang member, something that more than one judge has pointed out, and has been denied due process, a right of every legal resident of the United States. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court and, after a delay, the court sided with Abrego Garcia and told the Justice Department to follow the judge’s order. Though SCOTUS backed the judge 9-0, the decision was less than it seemed.

First, SCOTUS didn’t demand the return of Abrego Garcia. SCOTUS threw the case back to the lower courts to handle. They could have demanded that the Trump administration follow the law, but, once again, they let Trump off. Second, SCOTUS took issue with the judge’s demand that the Justice Department “effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return, stating that the “[effectuate] part of her order was ‘unclear’ and might overstep the judiciary’s power” – a small detail that further rubber stamps Trump’s lawlessness.

The Justice Department replied with an astounding bit of goobly-gook:

Justice Department officials wrote, “the federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner.”

Any further order from the court would “interfere with ongoing diplomatic discussions” and result in the release of “classified documents,” the officials argued, describing Abrego Garcia’s lawyers’ request for more detailed information as “micromanaging” U.S. foreign relations.

Moreover, the government argued that “facilitate” means only “allowing an alien to enter the United States” by “taking all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here,” not removing him from the custody of another country.

When reporters asked President Trump about Abrego Garcia’s case, he lied that he has “great respect” for the Supreme Court and that if he could return Abrego Garcia to the United States, he would.

Then, at a Monday morning White House meeting between Trump and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Bukele said that his hands were also tied, that there was no way he could release Abrego Garcia. He continued, “How can I return him to the United States? I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.”

No, asshole. You release him from prison, put him on a god damn plane to Maryland, and bid him farewell. From SCOTUS on down, the courts have ruled that Abrego Garcia should be returned to the United States, which means that he is welcome here, so there would be no one to “smuggle into the United States,” you smarmy piece of shit.

Of course, while Bukele was playing defiant teenage brat, Trump, standing next to him, beamed.

So, here’s Abrego Garcia, sitting in hell and, like a Kafka character, buried in absurdity, denial, confusion, and bullshit. And, here we are as “readers” knowing exactly what is going on, who the real bad guys are, the depth of the bullshit, and the very clear way out, yet, powerless to do anything concrete to make things right.

Add to that:

· Legal residents getting snatched off the street for deportation based on perceived criticism of Israel – a foreign country – wisked away far from their home and threatened with removal with no due process.

· An unelected billionaire given near complete control over the government in a campaign to strip the state of any function that does not benefit the same billionaire (and his boss), while giving the billionaire and his toadies access to every citizen’s personal information and more – all legally dubious at best.

· Courts repeatedly striking down Trump’s executive orders (which are not laws, by the way), only to be ignored and defied by Trump and his klan. The same courts have also demanded that the billionaire stop his reign of destruction, that closed agencies be revived, and that fired workers be rehired, orders which are also being ignored.

· In a Facebook post that has since been deleted, but which I saved, Heather Cox Richardson reports that the Department of Homeland Security is “compiling a database of ‘media influencers.’ DHS leaders want the database to include journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers, and so on, and to include the ‘sentiments’ of the people in it. While DHS spokesperson Tyler Q. Houlton tweeted that monitoring media is normal practice, and that ‘any suggestion otherwise is fit for tin foil hat wearing, black helicopter conspiracy theorists,’ many people have helpfully pointed out that, in fact, this is a move straight out of Putin's playbook, and that media influencers with the wrong ‘sentiments’ get arrested or attacked, or they disappear. There is no way now to know which interpretation is the right one.”

On that last point, I want to add that what the DHS is proposing to do (or doing) is not outside the norm in US history. Throughout our history, the government – at all levels – have “built files” on “media influencers.” We saw it in the early 20^th Century when President Woodrow Wilson had the Justice Department dog left-wing and union activists, as wells as sympathetic members of the press. Both the FBI and Congress compiled dossiers on writers during the Red Scare of the 1950s. The 1960s’ Civil Rights and anti-war movements saw heavy FBI surveillance of the press. Nixon infamously had his enemies list, which was loaded with journalists and writers. The ‘70s also saw local police departments forming “red squads,” which monitored local reporters and activists. During the early 1980s, the Reagan administration kept tabs on journalists reporting on its illegal activities in Central America. The 1990s saw the Bush and Clinton administrations spy on reporters covering Earth First!’s environmental protests and the activities of the anti-globalization movement.

So, none of this is new. What is concerning is how much further the Trump administration goes to break the law and ignore the courts. It’s also noteworthy that Trump is eager to use the government to punish his critics. Add to that: Trump is very willing to suspend due process and ship legal residents to prison in a foreign country, without being tried and convicted of anything, is unnerving, especially since he has expressed a desire to do the same with American citizens.

I am the very last person to set his hair on fire for a run around the block. I try to take a measured, reasoned approach to all this stuff. However, I know the history of this country and what the powerful are capable of. I see the willing weakness of Democratic Party leadership, especially Chuck Schumer whose feeble scolding is as effective resistance as “Sez you!” Then there is the much too relaxed, leisurely “resistance” in the street, which struggles with the fact that if you want change you have to get uncomfortable. All that is a darkness haunting what I know we are perfectly capable of: Fighting back and turning this damn thing around, something we can still do, so don’t take this as me giving up or dooming us to the worst.

Cox Richardson stated, “There is no way now to know which interpretation is the right one” in regards to DHS spying. I will add that the same applies to where we are at now. Fact is, Trump is very, very unpopular. Trust in him and his ability to do anything has cratered, even among some supporters. As Fecal Midas, he fails spectacularly at what he tries to do (see tariffs). His henchman Elon Musk is the most hated political figure in this country, while Bernie Sanders is the most popular. Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are drawing huge crowds in rallies across the country (and Bernie made an appearance at Coachella, a deft move that the Democrats should take note of).

Just last week, we had massive protests across the country, in both big and small towns. We read of major law firms and universities caving to Trump, but there are also firms and universities – like Harvard – who are telling Trump to “Fuck off” (and attorneys and professors protesting their institutions’ cowardliness). Chuck Schumer’s hold on power is weakening by the day (a good thing), as more and more people listen to Democrats and independents like Chris Murphy, AOC, and Sanders stand up strong to Trump.

There is a lot going on and we are right smack dab in the middle of it, which is the very last place you want to make a progress report from. So, what to do? Keep on fighting back: head down, fear controlled, back to work.