That Was Not A Deportation

That Was Not A Deportation

 I kept seeing that Obrego-Garcia had been "deported" but it sounded from everything that I had read more like he was kidnapped. There is a big distinction between the government going through legal process and just Shanghaiing and disappearing someone. The file in PACER bears out that this was no deportation. (Obrego-Garcia's case is drawing most of the heat for the obvious: the "authority" the Trump administration is using doesn't apply to someone from El Salvador as opposed to Venezuela. But the Due Process issue is just as relevant to the Venezuelans accused of being tren de aragua gang members.)

The government's lawlessness can be traced to January 20. Up to that point, the legal process had been proceeding as intended: Obrego-Garcia, who had left El Salvador when he was 16 years old and had been living in this country ever since 2011 got picked up some eight years later at a Home Depot and accused of being a member of MS-13; the government moves for his removal; he appears for his first meeting, asks for bond, submits 70 pages of evidence in support;  the government objects to him being released, maintaining that he was a gang member on the basis of him having a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie as well as some unsubstantiated information tying him to another part of the country that he's never been; he files for asylum and the withholding of removal based on the protections afforded under the Convention Against Torture; the hearing, which spans over two days, results in the withholding of removal. The government does not appeal.

Obrego-Garcia eventually married, had a child, had been fully compliant with his ICE check in requirements, had never been arrested or charged with any crime in the United States (or in El Salvador). The question of his supposed gang membership off the table. 

Until March 12th, 2025. 

After completing his shift, Obrego-Garcia got picked up by agents and told that his "status had changed". No hearing. No request to bring him back to the immigration court, etc. He is whisked away by masked men, no mention of where he is going, eventually finding himself in a prison notorious for its cruelty. A solution worthy of Pontius Pilate but that is no "deportation"; that is a rendition.

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