Persons on U.S. soil cannot be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. We have the right to confront our accusers in a court of law, and we have the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Donald Trump’s United States government has already violated most of these rights for Salvadoran migrant and longtime Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Tomorrow, Abrego Garcia faces possible deportation to Uganda for the greatest crime of all: pushing back against the abuses of President Donald J Trump. The plight of this man will further clog the first-day-of-school traffic, with what is hoped to be a heavily-populated protest and vigil for the wrongfully-abducted and imprisoned husband and father. Mr. Abrego Garcia was finally released from federal pre-trial detention on Friday and immediately ordered to appear at the federal building in Baltimore for an ICE check-in at 8 a.m. Monday morning. His lawyers were advised in that call that he maybe be deported to Uganda as soon as 72 hours later.

Could it be that the government has no case? But rather than follow through on a trial for human trafficking, which is the charge under which the government brought him back from the mistaken deportation to an El Salvador mega prison, they’d rather ship him across the world. Could it be better for them to send him to a country with documented human rights abuses, where he does not know the language, and where his wife and children would likely be unable to visit, rather than risk failure to prove he’s a gang member that deserves deportation in the first place? Removal to Uganda would be pretty cruel and unusual punishment for the crime of crossing the border without a visa, and even for the crime of human smuggling, since he remains innocent until they take the time to convict him.

This appears to be retribution for declining to take the offered plea agreement and be removed to Costa Rica, in exchange for pleading guilty to the trafficking charge. The proposed arrangement is not unique to the immigration enforcement system that we have right now. It has always been the case that prosecutors will use circumstantial evidence to scare people into agreeing to freely give up less of their lives, rather than risk a conviction that could cost them many more years. But Abrego Garcia is bold enough, after all he has been through, to take his chances on a day in court rather than agree to a deal.

It would not surprise me to know that someone in the prosecutor’s office truly believes they are being magnanimous by offering to send him to Costa Rica, a country where he wouldn’t be persecuted, where he knows the language, and from where he wouldn’t be deported to his birth home of El Salvador. It could feel to the govnernment like Abrego Garcia is being ungrateful, perhaps even uppity, to imagine that a jury in the MAGA-red state of Tennessee might acquit him, after all the government has done to him.  

A Maryland judge or two may help extend Abrego Garcia’s presence in the States, but for how long? And could he be with his family while fighting deportation, or would he be back in federal custody? Questions like these no longer have fairly predictable answers. Reliability is something we all lose when those charged to uphold our rights are the ones ignoring them. All we can do is make some noise – for Abrego Garcia, our Constitution and ourselves.