Abrego Garcia is safe, but is our Constitution safe under Trump?

In this photo released by Senator Van Hollen’s press office, Hollen, right, speaks with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland and deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Press Office Senator Van Hollen, via AP)

Hang on for a special Easter message, dear readers.

But first here’s an update of another message fitting for this day: One if by land; Two if by Trump.

That’s the signal Paul Revere might have sent out on a midnight ride April 18, 2025.

Two hundred fifty years ago, his lanterns gave the signal that trouble had arrived.

But today, it’s not the British we fear, it’s our own president.

One if by land, two if by Trump.

Indeed, America’s experiment in democracy – in which Revere played an historic role – is being threatened by an executive branch like we’ve never seen.

And it’s directed by one man, Trump himself, the would be A.A. – American autocrat, interested only in stretching the limits of presidential power.

Even Nixon listened to the courts and gave up the Watergate tapes.

This all comes a day after an appellate court backed up both the Supreme Court and a lower court judge’s directive that Trump return the wrongly deported immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was taken from the streets of Maryland and sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison.

But instead of following the law and obeying the judicial branch’s order, the president stood his ground on Abrego Garcia.

“He’s not coming back,” Trump said on social media Friday.

Then in an answer to the media later in the day, Trump defended his hard line against criminals.

“We’re getting them out,” Trump said. And that’s why I was elected. A judge wasn’t elected to do that.”

No, Mr. President, judges enforce the law. And you apparently insist on bending them to your liking.

No doubt, Trump is wrong here, just as he was wrong calling Abrego Garcia criminal even though he has no criminal record and the Department of Justice has brought no proof of criminality before the courts.

What the US did in court was admit to an “administrative error,” then later fired that honest attorney for telling the truth.

That’s what happens when the executive branch’s Department of Justice is run on the whim of one man.

But don’t mistake Trump’s defiance of court orders to return Abrego Garcia as a display of courage.

It’s a show of lawlessness.

Van Hollen returns after Abrego Garcia meeting

That’s not lost on Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who went to El Salvador to make sure his constituent, wrongfully held in a mega-prison there, was still safe.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accompanied by Cesar Abrego Garcia, from left, and Cecilia Garcia, speaks during a news conference upon his arrival from meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“It’s time to end the illegal abduction of Abrego Garcia,” Sen. Van Hollen told reporters when he arrived Friday to Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

After being rebuffed, Van Hollen was finally able to meet with Abrego Garcia, outside the prison, and confirmed he was being held in another facility in Santa Ana and not the CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo ) prison seen in news reports. Van Hollen also said the US was paying $15 million to El Salvador to house deportees.

Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia missed his wife and his family, and was able to confirm his general well-being. Van Hollen also added, the social media claim that the meeting was held over margaritas was just false. Or as Trump would say, “fake news.”

But that was beside the point.

Trump’s defiance is a threat to our laws and our democracy.

“It’s also important that people understand this case is not about one man,” said Van Hollen.

“It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America. If you deny the constitutional right of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone in America.”

In other words, if the US can mistakenly deport a person to a leased gulag in a foreign country, and claim it is powerless to undo its mistake, well put yourself in the shoes of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

This undated photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP)

It could be you.

If you have a hard time believing a US president would push the limits of his power in this way, Van Hollen referred to Thursday’s order from the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a notoriously conservative appeals court.

In lieu of a mandatory civics lesson, the order should be required reading for all Americans. It was written by a well-known conservative judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Republican who blasted Trump’s attempt to overturn the ruling that Abrego Garcia be returned to the US.

“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter, but in this case it’s not hard at all,” wrote Wilkinson. “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further it claims in essence that because it rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done.’

“This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”

Wilkinson doesn’t like where this case is going and says as much. “The Executive (Trump) will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time hisotry will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and the law in time will sign its epitaph.”

“It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well. Yet we cling to the hope that it is not naive to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”

Is it naive? A Republican judge trying to appeal to a lawless president? Maybe the Republicans in the legislative branch will respond.

But in reality, it really is up to us. The people.

Easter message

And so here’s the Easter part of this column.

Good Filipino Catholics not into self-flagellation may be wondering, what do we do from Good Friday to Easter?

It wouldn’t be seen as a violation of church and state to use this period to think about where exactly America finds itself as a nation.

We have a lawless president who, like Pontius Pilate, has put an innocent man on a cross.

Only this time, it’s our Constitution slowly being put to death.

Unlike presidents of the past who have reasoned in favor of our great nation, we now have one man who litigates every issue to his liking. Chaos is the result, making governing impossible.

In the peace of the season, please take the time and read over the short legal order written by Wilkinson, and consider where we are as a nation.

We are the ones – not one man – who will determine the future of our democracy.

And now with the Abrego Garcia case, the signals are clear for us all to take action in our own way.

One if by land, two if by Trump? Paul Revere would be riding hard getting the message out.

Happy Easter everyone.

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.