Trump, El Salvador’s Bukele defy Supreme Court on Abrego Garcia case
President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)
Filipino Americans take note: The Trump administration believes the US can deport anyone it wants, whenever it wants. Even if it makes a mistake. Even if you’re a citizen. Even if you’re here legally and not a criminal.
The US believes it can even deport you for not liking what you say or do. Deportation is a matter of whatever Trump and his Department of Justice sycophants want.
Is that legal?
Well, that’s why we now have a real Constitutional crisis.
The Trump administration today said it would not return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man here legally in the US but mistakenly deported in March to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
The Trump defiance comes after the Department of Justice admitted Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error.” Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Abrego Garcia was originally denied due process. Prior to his wrongful deportation, there was no hearing and no charges presented against him. It prompted the conservative Supreme Court to order the US to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to America.
But the stakes are higher than just one man.
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts’ ruling had an attachment. It was a note from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown-Jackson, that showed how this case impacts all of us. Immigrant and non-immigrant, citizen or non-citizen alike.
Sotomayor warned in her note that the government’s position “implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including US citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”
A court intervention is the due process part, the heart of the SCOTUS ruling. Trump doesn’t believe it’s necessary. On Monday, Trump and his executive branch thumbed their noses at the third branch of government.
“This is international matters, foreign affairs, if they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump, who was sitting next to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in an informal Oval Office media opportunity.
The administration has changed its story since Abrego Garcia’s family began fighting for his release this month. Since then, the Department of Justice has fired its lawyer who admitted the administrative mistake. Now it fervently insists Abrego Garcia was here illegally, and that he was deportable even though he had protective status under Biden.
But Trump’s sycophants also are passing the buck, saying it was really up to Salvadoran President Bukele.
Bukele, the Salvadoran dictator, admired by Trump for his tough stand on crime, knew exactly what to say about Abrego Garcia.
“How can I return him to the United States,” said Bukele. “Do I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. It’s like, I mean the question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”
Of course, Bukele was playing dumb. Abrego Garcia isn’t a terrorist, hasn’t been convicted, let alone accused of a crime. It also wouldn’t be smuggling. The US is outsourcing its “concentration camp work” to El Salvador, and Bukele is a contractor with the government, like Elon Musk.
The court has ordered Abrego Garcia’s return, and a quick call could have “facilitated it.” And as Bondi said, a plane could have been sent.
Instead, we get this Trump show, changing their story about Abrego Garcia with a lie that elevates him from an “administrative error” to a feared terrorist.
And we have all the US president’s enablers walking back the lie and putting out their new truth-challenged narrative.
”I don’t understand what the confusion is,” said Sec. of State Marco Rubio, who was also in the room. “This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and returned to his country.”
Then he turned to Trump and said, “I can tell you this, Mr. President. The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the President of the United States and not by a court. No court in the United States has a right to conduct a foreign policy of the United States. It’s that simple. End of story.”
Sure. But only if you want to disavow the Constitution and give the president more power than he has. You allow him to defy the third branch of government and the rule of law, and let him rule without checks or balances.
Rubio’s stance was a gross misreading of the high court’s order. The 9-0 ruling was that Abrego Garcia was denied due process, where he could be charged and defend himself.
He was simply taken. “Kidnapped,” as Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said today on the matter.
The White House’s refusal to obey the high court is astonishing. This is what we’ve all feared when we read the Sotomayor note last week.
The US can come for any of us, no matter if it’s a mistake. It won’t be corrected. If the president can say he’s ruling on foreign policy, then it’s no business of the court.
It’s a pure power grab. And it facilitates the way to incarcerate and deport all Trump’s enemies. It’s the Abrego Garcia model – the way to create constitution-free zones in El Salvador, run by a dictator with open spaces in his mega-prison for which he’s paid more than $6 million.
This sort of thing only happens when the president crosses the line and grabs more power than he has. That’s when he becomes more like a king.
And the US becomes less of a democracy.
Constitutional crisis? Within the first 100 days, we have tariffs, birth right citizenship and immigration. Make no mistake, we’re deep into a Constitutional crisis right now.
Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and stage monologuist. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack.
