It Can Happen to You

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Remember this name, because this man and his case of unlawful detention and imprisonment, if left unanswered, will mark the beginning of our country’s descent into the suspension of habeas corpus in the United States.

Simply put, habeas corpus has been our 250 year right to due process of law. It is a bedrock principle of our democracy and it’s being crushed by the regime. Mr. Garcia was grabbed by ICE agents and sent off to prison in another country because he was wrongly identified as a gang member. The regime finally agreed that his imprisonment was a result of an administrative error, but now that’s he out of the country, he’s out of luck.

Federal judges ruled this man must be brought back to the United States immediately. And here’s what happened next according to a BBC article (my emphasis)…”US Solicitor General D John Sauer wrote in his emergency court filing: "The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge's bidding." The most powerful nation in the world can’t figure this out?

He added: "The Constitution charges the president, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the nation against foreign terrorists, including by effectuating their removal." Mr. Garcia is not a terrorist, something the regime has already admitted.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi welcomed Justice Roberts' stay, and said the administration will "continue to fight this case and protect the executive branch from judicial overreach". The Executive Branch of government is above the law and can do as it pleases. Stop us.

Now we wait and see if this case is going to be the one the Supreme Court actually takes a stand on in defense of our Constitution and our right to Habeas Corpus. Should they abdicate their responsibility in order to avoid a showdown with the regime, we the people, are in serious trouble.

Don’t Think It Can’t Happen to You

With protests all over the country growing larger and more vocal, the regime is going to quickly pivot to suppressing our free speech rights. Don’t think this can’t happen in sleepy old Georgia. Just take a look at all the ways our GOP-led state legislators have tried to muzzle us:

This is a link to a US Protest Law Tracker from the International Center for Non-Profit Law, that takes one through the history of Georgia legislator’s efforts to suppress our first amendment rights through anti-protest bills. And of course, as one of the cradles of the confederacy, anti-protest actions in the past have proved to be especially cruel and inhumane such as the use of attack dogs and firehoses on black men, women, and children.

But this is the first time that our right to a hearing in a court of law has been directly challenged by our own Executive Branch. There are more and more stories surfacing of people being snatched off the street with no warning by unmarked, hooded agents. Now, ICE agents want access to highly sensitive IRS data in order to better track down their victims. What’s going to stop them from looking up YOUR tax information in order to find out if you’ve broken any of the new “laws” governing free speech, protests, and disagreements with the regime? The answer: nothing if the Supreme Court doesn’t stand up and protect us.

Here is a link to a full opinion piece on this topic recently published in the New York Times. It was written by Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California and Laurence H. Tribe, an emeritus university professor of constitutional law at Harvard. In it, they call on the Supreme Court to immediately and clearly condemn the ability of any branch of government to suspend due process of law.

Just a reminder, that the actions the regime is taking are very similar to those taken by another well known dictator, Stalin. His infamous gulags were warehouses that held his political prisoners in conditions designed to break them. In the United States, we call these gulags, immigrant detention centers, to which the regime plans to pay private companies upwards of $45 billion dollars to build and operate. Yes, that’s private companies who will profit off the misery of others including women, children, and infants. The more people put into detention, the more money they make.

If the Supreme Court does not take a stand, we will have to. Some of us will pay the price, but I’m all in and hope you are too. This is our opportunity to say NO loud and clear. Resist now or we may never again enjoy the sacred benefit of free speech in this country.