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The Trump administration disappeared Kilmar Abrego Garcia and hundreds of other men to an El Salvadoran megaprison against a judge’s order and without due process last month.

Abrego Garcia is a husband and father who fled to the U.S. as a 15-year-old to escape being forcibly inducted into a gang. He is now a legal U.S. resident who worked in construction for many years before becoming a sheet metal apprentice. The Trump administration accused him, without evidence, of being a gang member here.

Abrego Garcia is a documented member of a union, not a gang, and union leaders are demanding that the Trump administration bring him home.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s spokesperson, has made increasingly wild and unfounded accusations about Abrego Garcia, including that he engaged in human trafficking. Last Thursday AG Pam Bondi, wearing a showy cross necklace, baselessly accused Abrego Garcia of being “one of the top MS-13 members” and “a terrorist.”

The Trump administration has not presented documentation for these claims in court; it is just smearing Abrego Garcia, even after admitting it mistakenly sent him to incarceration in El Salvador.

We’re in a worsening constitutional crisis. Trump told El Salvador’s president Bukele last week, “The homegrowns are next.” Trump clearly wants to target U.S. citizens with illegal deportations, too.

Demand justice for Abrego Garcia and stop Trump’s lawless, authoritarian-style abuses of power from escalating.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson
Albert Lea