The MAGA crowd wails and gnashes their teeth over their claim that Democrats are trying to return a gang member to the US. They seee this as evidence of the Democrats’s plan to flood the country with murderers and rapists who will vote Democrat and, we must assume, target only Republicans in their murderous rampage.

This doesn’t even qualify as good fiction. This is poor world-building at its best. For a story to be good, no matter where or when it takes place or the implausible circumstances under which it unfolds, it must be believable. We never traveled to another galaxy, let alone another planet, yet we accept shows like Star Trek and Star Wars as believable.

This isn’t that well done. This is just the ravings of the sad, pathetic, unimaginative lunatic fringe.

No one. Let me repeat that S  L O  W  L  Y. No one wants illegal aliens, let alone murderers and rapists, to come into this country. NO ONE.

What Democrats and, I believe, a majority (perhaps that once famous silent majority) of Republicans want is the rule of law. They want Due Process. Due Process, for those of you possibly unfamiliar with the concept, except maybe from watching television, comes from a combination of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The Fifth Amendment says this;

No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

The Fourteenth Amendment says this:

…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

“No person” is interpreted to apply to “… non-citizens within the United States – no matter whether their presence may be or is “unlawful, involuntary, or transitory. And whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.”

There is an exception for those non-citizens at the point of entry. The Supreme Court has recognized that non-citizens can be stopped, detained, and denied by immigration officials at points of entry (e.g. at a port, border crossing, or airport) without the protection of the Due Process Clause because, while technically on U.S. soil, they are not considered to have entered the United States.

No one. Let me repeat that S  L O  W  L  Y. No one wants illegal aliens, let alone murderers and rapists, to come into this country. NO ONE.

Joe Broadmeadow

However, the point is clear: due process applies to anyone, regardless of immigration status, once they have entered the US. It is one of the few things that distinguishes us from other countries, such as China, North Korea, and El Salvador.

Due process is not a “technicality.” It is a fundamental protection against the power of the government. And there are a slew of others all equally worth fighting for.

This is not about Mr. Garcia. Clearly, the government had some indication of his involvement with the MS-13 gang. Forced by circumstances, they finally released that information. However, they failed to present it in court or argue that it was sufficient to seek Garcia’s deportation, which would have avoided the entire problem in the first place.

They just decided to do this unilaterally despite long-standing court rulings that Garcia is entitled to due process. That should scare the hell out of every American.

Now they have taken it one step further down the road to authoritarianism. Now they’ve decided that if you profess a belief or opinion contrary to the policies of the government, you are subject to removal despite any legal standing to be here.  You have committed a thought crime.  

This should really scare everyone.  If we draw this out to its logical conclusion, if the government adopts a policy you find abhorrent and you argue against it or work for a candidate who seeks to change this policy, does that now become a crime?

Where does it end?

Most people are familiar with Miranda warnings. The little speech cops give to suspects when they are arrested. “I got rights, give me my rights.”  But I’m willing to bet most have no idea who Miranda was.

In 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested by Phoenix Police for kidnapping and rape of an 18-year-old woman. After two hours of interrogation by police, Miranda signed a confession. 

Miranda was convicted at trial, primarily based on the confession, and sentenced to prison. Ultimately, in 1966, the case reached the Supreme Court. A five-vote majority overturned the conviction and set the following standard when someone was arrested:

“The person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he has the right to remain silent, and that anything he says will be used against him in court; he must be clearly informed that he has the right to consult with a lawyer and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation, and that, if he is indigent, a lawyer will be appointed to represent him.“

Miranda was ultimately retried and convicted on evidence readily available to the police and without the confession. He served time, made money after his release by signing Miranda warning cards carried by cops, and was stabbed to death in a bar in 1976.

The Miranda warnings are not just another technicality; they serve as a protection against lazy, ineffectual, or outright unlawful investigative actions by the government.

So when you get outraged that someone “lawyers up” you might want to temper that rage with a realization of how fragile your rights can be absent such protections. The history of this country is riddled with wrongful convictions, many fueled by confessions obtained by circumventing the right to remain silent. (https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2025/01/09/police-misconduct-lawsuits-cpd-legal-settlements-city-council)

All the protections within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are designed to safeguard the individual from the power of the government. To level the playing field.

Statute of limitations, Right to Counsel, and prohibitions against Cruel and Unusual punishment (like sending US citizens to notorious foreign prisons) are not protecting criminals.  They are a necessary element in the balance of power.

And before everyone starts screaming these should only apply to American citizens (despite the clear interpretation of the courts to the contrary) it would be good to keep in mind that at the genesis moment the Constitution and Bill of Rights were ratified, they only applied to white male property owners.

It was only over time that the courts, along with society’s progress, broadened the protections of “all men are created equal” by interpreting “all men” to include all humans.

Another troubling aspect of this is the government’s open defiance of the court, as evidenced by its failure to comply with its orders.  Our government functions effectively because there is a delicate yet necessary balance of power.

Congress legislates, the President conducts his office in compliance with the laws, and the courts interpret the constitutionality of the actions. Each has equal power.  That is the only way we can assure ourselves of avoiding an authoritarian regime.

When the government brings Garcia back–and don’t think for one moment the President of the United States doesn’t have the power to compel his return–and they present the evidence to a court of competent jurisdiction, if the court rules he should be deported, then put him back on the plane.

But if the court rules otherwise, then let him go. And in either case, we should applaud the process and take pride in the fact that there are Americans, regardless of their political leanings, willing to stand up for these principles. And equally embarrassed that there are those among us who would so easily abandon them.