The plan has been rebuked in federal court and resulted in restraining orders against the Trump administration, which is trying to ignore them by invoking the Alien Enemies Act. In one case, a person with no criminal record, Venezuelan national Kilmer Armado Abrego Garcia, was deported to El Salvador due to an administrative error, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to insist he was a hardened gang member with no evidence. Administration officials are even reluctant to fix their mistake. Â
The Trump administration has bragged about deporting dangerous members of violent gangs such as MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, but in reality has based those allegations on weak evidence, such as tattoos. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem even used El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison as a sick backdrop for a propaganda video that she posted on social media.Â
Not content with one illegal deportation plan, Trump wants to start deporting immigrants to other countries, discussing plans with Benin, Eswatini, Kosovo, Libya, Moldova, Mongolia, and Rwanda. But given how unpopular deporting immigrants to El Salvador is, sending migrants to other legal black holes is not likely to gain the president any supporters and will likely hurt his poll numbers further. With recent elections not going his way, the sensible thing for Trump to do would be to slow down, but he’s not known for doing that.
