Kilmar Abrego Garcia was effectively kidnapped by government forces and banished to a foreign prison in March of 2025. As of this week, the Maryland resident and father of three has finally been declared the target of selective or vindictive prosecution, after testimony from government officials that the Justice Department did not pursue charges of human trafficking – or even investigate Abrego Garcia – until he successfully sued to be returned from El Salvadorean super prison CECOT. In other words, the prosecution was punishment for the administration’s international humiliation when forced to return the long-time U.S. resident to the States.

The wheels of justice move slowly, but this week at least, they moved in the right direction and to the correct outcome. Nevertheless, this government, led by a perpetually vindictive person, will not be left with egg on its face under any circumstances. The feds have declared that Abrego Garcia will nevertheless by removed from U.S. soil to an African nation, most likely Liberia.  So the legal battles will continue unless or until there is a new administration or a Congress that finds its…spine.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant residents in the U.S. may be forced to return to their countries of origin in order to apply for a green card. This change will separate countless family members in a system that is already overburdened, under an administration that is already banning immigrants from 100 countries. In practice, the change amounts to a declaration to go home and not come back. U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services says there will be exceptions for emergencies but does not clearly define what those are.

It seems as if there can be no joyous news in the area of a near zero-tolerance immigration policy without an immediate offering of something painful. It is not enough to have a record number of suicides and self-harm in detention to prove how successfully devoid of hope application of said policy currently is (nine suicides in the 16 months of Trump 2.0; two in the entire Biden administration). Could the increase be a result in a doubling of numbers in detention? Sure.  It could equally be the result of there being no light at the end of a tunnel with a length determined by court process.

At the risk of sounding like a skipping record, the public must keep its collective eyes on the hands of the government puppets moving around the cups of a well-orchestrated shell game. It is public scrutiny and outcry keeping this all from being much worse. The most effective change seems to happen microcosmically. After all, all politics are local, first and foremost. 

Kudos to the Marylanders who showed up at courthouses in Baltimore and Annapolis on behalf of Abrego Garcia. Now, on to the next joyous reaction at a triumphant legal outcome, and may it be prolonged. We need them in Minnesota, Florida, California, Texas and wherever the light of scrutiny is dimmest. And we need them on much more than immigration policy.

As we commemorate on this Memorial Day the ultimate sacrifice of those who died in uniform in defense of the principles of this nation, and continue to do in the war with Iran, the citizenry cannot drop the ball on its end of the bargain, on its role in the battles to come. The next fight for Abrego Garcia is to stay out of a plane seat bound for an African country. The next fight for the public at large, nationally or locally? There are many to choose from. Just face the table and lift a shell.