4-19-25
The Trump administration’s authoritarianism continues to get worse and worse, a sickening and dangerous situation that continues to unfold before our very eyes.
The United States Constitution is quite clear that everyone in this country should receive due process under the law when accused of crimes and wrongdoing. The 5th Amendment states: “No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” I’d say that’s pretty clear wouldn’t you? Yet, the Trump administration is clearly defying this as it rounds up and deports foreign immigrants, including those who are here legally, in scarily high numbers. Foreign students, again who are here completely legally, are finding their visas are suddenly being revoked so that they have to flee the country. And the entire world saw how 238 Venezuelans, who the administration accused of being members of the gang MS-13, got loaded up on a plane and shipped off to a brutal El Salvadoran prison despite the fact that a federal judge had issued a court order blocking this action. Furthermore, a CBS article found that 75% of these men had no criminal records. None of this changes the fact that whether or not they really are members of MS-13 (and there’s a very strong chance that at least several are not), all people deserve due process of law in the United States, something it’s quite clear that these individuals were denied. Treating people like this, be they criminals or not, is a clear sign of brutal authoritarianism.
Let’s take a look at several examples. First up is the case of 19-year-old Merwil Gutiérrez, a young man who was hanging out with a few friends in New York City when they were suddenly rounded up by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials. It’s reported that during the incident, one of the agents said, “No, he’s not the one,” as if he was the wrong person, but the report further explains that another agent responded, “Take him anyway.” Now consider how Gutiérrez had no criminal record in this country in addition to his family’s claims of no gang affiliations and no tattoos (officials appear to be using tattoos as one of their reasonings for gang affiliation despite many experts saying that’s not an accurate way of doing so). Just days later, the young man was sent to a high security prison in El Salvador. I think it’s safe to say that there is no way he received legitimate due process in just a few days.
Here’s another. Andry Hernandez Romero is a gay makeup artist who fled Venezuela seeking asylum here because of persecution in his former country due to his sexuality. The attorney who had been helping him with the asylum process said that he “just disappeared,” finding out later that he’d been swooped up by ICE, who accused him of being a member of a gang. It appears that part of their reasoning were tattoos of crowns he had, but his attorney explains that the tattoo crowns were above the names of his mother and father. Officials also claim that media posts he had made supposedly supported his gang involvement, but CBS reporters looked at his media account and found no such posts. Andry Hernandez Romero was sent to a notorious high security El Salvadoran prison. Upon arrival, he tried to explain that he’s innocent and gay to which the guards viciously slapped him. He then started praying and crying for his mother.
Now let’s take a look at the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He entered the United States illegally in 2012 but gained a protected status in 2019. He’s married to an American citizen with whom he had a son (she also has two other children from a previous marriage) and was living in Maryland. He was rounded up and deported to an El Salvadoran prison, but the Trump administration later had to admit that this had been done so by an “administrative error.” A federal judge ordered that the administration needed to “facilitate” his release, a ruling that was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. While he was temporarily released in order to be interviewed by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, El Salvador’s president declared that Garcia would remain in prison. The Trump administration has flat out said that he would not be allowed back into the United States. And so far, the US government has not released any legitimate evidence that would hold up in a court of law proving their claim of his being a gang member. And either way, he deserves due process, something which clearly did not happen..
This behavior on the part of the Trump administration is the sort seen by authoritarian autocrats and goes against what this country is supposed to be about. In the opinion of many experts, it flagrantly goes against the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Think about that. Really think about it. There are clear indications here that the Trump administration is at the very least trying to get around court orders and appears by many to be directly defying them. It is the opinion of experts in this country and around the world that such behavior is not democratic but is authoritarian in nature and certainly goes against the vital foundation of having a balance of power between the three branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.
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