OBJECTIVITY RULES: Kilmar Garcia

A complicated situation still shows he shouldn't have been deported

Ray Marcano

Apr 18, 2025

Objectivity rules: April 18, 2025

In this week’s edition:

Kilmar Garcia
Harvard fights back
Odds and ends

NOTE: I was out of town last week and missed writing the newsletter

EXPLAINING THE KILMAR GARCIA DEPORTATION

Objectivity can be hard —- really hard —- in the face of blinding injustice. We’re seeing that injustice in the case of Kilmar Garcia, a man the United States government admits it illegally deported to El Salvador and now refuses to do anything to bring him home.

The government is feeling the pressure because Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Deputy Director Steven Miller, and Homeland Security czar Kristi Noem have spent all week trying to paint Garcia as a gang member and terrorist in the country illegally.

Here are the facts.

Garcia entered the country illegally as a 16-year-old in 2011. He has since married an American woman and has three children with her. An illegal immigrant marrying an American does not immediately guarantee citizenship. Therefore, Garcia was subject to deportation.

He was arrested back in 2019, but an administrative immigration judge said he couldn’t be deported to El Salvador because of concerns he and his family were in danger from gangs there. You can read the order here (which EVERY news organization should link to)

The Department of Homeland Security could have objected to the order if it felt Garcia was a threat to anyone in the country. It didn’t. (Remember, this is Trump’s DHS).

Then, the administration mistakenly deported Garcia, blaming an administrative error.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Garia’s return to the United States. But this gives Team Trump an out. What’s “facilitate?” The Constitution gives Congress and the President, not the courts, the authority to conduct foreign policy. So even if “facilitate” means “please ask for his return,” that gets in the area of foreign policy.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said during a White House visit on Monday that we wouldn’t return Garcia to the United States, and called him a “terrorist.” Bondi said if El Salvador wanted to send Garcia back, the United States would facilitate the request by sending a plane for him. But Miller said if that happened, America would deport him immediately (the government can deport him to any country except El Salvador, based on another court order),

Miller also floated the idea that, since President Trump has declared MS-13 a terrorist organization, Garcia has lost all of his protections. That’s not the way it works in the United States. You can’t apply executive orders, which aren’t judicial orders, retroactively to cases.

The only allegation of Garcia’s alleged gang ties came from a confidential informant who said Garcia was an MS-13 member in New York, which is odd since Garcia has never lived in New York. Various administration officials have called him a “terrorist,” and there’s no proof of that, either.

A TROUBLING SERIES OF EVENTS

On Thursday, the government released several documents, all new, that paint Garcia as a wife-abusing gang member. In one released document, his wife took out a civil protection order that she soon dropped. The administration says that’s proof of —- I’m not sure.

The government’s drive to deport illegal immigrants has gone further than deporting criminals. It’s sent someone who, courts have ruled, should be in the United States to a South American jail against his will. It’s arresting foreign students and deporting them because the government doesn’t like their political views.

But there’s something else happening here, and we won’t know what for a long time. The pronouncements, from the White House and El Salvador, that they can’t bring Garcia back are a flat-out lie. Just last month, eight women wrongly deported to Venezuela were returned to the United States. Somebody facilitated something.

Everyone should follow this case closely and be concerned. While people will think it’s “just an illegal,” it isn’t. This is a man the courts have ordered can’t be deported to El Salvador, and the government refuses to try to bring him back.

What’s to stop the administration from deporting an American citizen to a friendly autocrat, say, “Oops, we made a mistake,” but then claim it can do nothing to get the person back since they’re on foreign soil? Trump muses about that the other day when he wonder if he could send American criminals to foreign jails.

Garcia is alive and in the notorious CECOT prison, known for its human rights abuses.

The Department of Justice should bring Garcia back and ask a judge to void the 2019 order. If granted, the government could send Garcia wherever it wanted.

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HARVARD FIGHTS BACK

Harvard decided to stand up for itself. Will others do the same?

The White House announced it would withhold $2.3 billion in funding after Harvard rebuffed a list of the administration’s demands. Among them: removing DEI programs, decreasing the power of faculty, and punishing students allegedly involved in anti-Semitic actions. The Harvard Crimson has a terrific analysis on the demands and what it would mean for the university.

Now, the administration has floated removing the university’s tax-exempt status, which would certainly face a legal challenge.

This could be the start of a major push back from groups under attack from the White House. Two major law firms have already said they won’t bend the knee and follow others that have decided to do what Trump wants. The White House will continue fighting Harvard because Tumo doesn’t like to be seen as backing down.

ODDS AND ENDS

Trump wants Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Other presidents have tried to influence monetary policy. Only question: Will Trump take the unprecedented step of trying to fire an independent head of agency … A judge has threatened the administration with contempt as it continues to ignore court orders for information involving deportation to Venezuela. What would that look like … Police arrested a man they say set fire to the Pennsylvania democratic governor Josh Shapiro’s home in an act of political anger. Everyone should condemn this sort of violence … Thr NFL draft is April 24, with Miami QB Cam Ward expected to go first to Tennessee …. Marco Rubio said the United States might bail on Russia/Ukrainian peace talks if there’s no sign of progress soon. What happened to Trump snapping his fingers and boh sides would make a deal? …. An appeals court ripped into the Trump administration for disrespecting the judiciary by ignoring its order. Don’t expect that behavior to change.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS AND LITIGATION

Every week, I’ll include these links. This one tracks all of the Trump administration's executive orders. A number of these orders have been challenged in court, and you can track that on this litigation tracker.

MY OTHER WRITING

Last Sunday, in the Dayton Daily News, I wrote about Nola Palomar, an American citizen who had a small import business but couldn’t afford to pay the additional taxes on her products. Here’s a section of the column that shows what she’s financially up against:

Palomar already pays a 35% tariff on every pallet of tuna she orders. One pallet contains 4,625 cans. She pays nearly 26,000 euros ($28,532 USD at today’s prices) per pallet, and the 35% tariff adds another 9,000 euros. ($9,845 UD).
But Trump has threatened an additional 20% tariff, which would increase her tax bill to more than 14,000 euros ($15,315 USD). It’s not like she can put all of this on a credit card and pay over time. She has to pay for everything upfront, via wire transfer, and U.S. customs won’t release her products until she pays the tax bill and other associated costs. Under this example, she needs at least $44K USD cash-on-hand to complete this one purchase.

This week, I write that the state of Ohio shouldn’t approve $600 million in bonds to help finance a new stadium for the Cleveland Browns. The owner can afford it.

Until next week …