The Drama is Real

A common technique of novelists is to begin with what appear to be separate, unrelated, storylines and, as the story develops, merge them into a single drama. To some extent, our current reality is much like this, only based in fact rather than imagination. As such, current events can be explained much like a novel.

It may not have been a dark and stormy night, but in the lobby of the New York City building in which Mahmoud Khalil shares student housing with his American-citizen wife, a group of law enforcement officers surrounds him and takes him into custody, refusing to identify themselves or explain what will happen to him. He eventually surfaces in a detention center in the state of Louisiana. The next week, after leaving work and picking up his son, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is stopped by Department of Homeland Security agents. Three days later, Abrego Garcia is flown to El Salvador, where he is imprisoned in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). Two days after that, Badar Khan Suri, a researcher at Georgetown University, is arrested at his home in Roselyn, Virginia by masked agents. He is moved to a detainment facility in Texas. Not long after that, masked agents seize Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk off of a Somerville, Massachusetts street, forcing her into an unmarked car. She will eventually surface in another detention center in Louisiana. Days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stop a car driven by Alfredo Juarez, a labor activist who has worked to organize farm workers, smash his car's window, and drag him out onto the pavement. He ends up in a processing center in Tacoma, Washington.

While those arrests were taking place, four Venezuelan men being detained in El Valle Detention Facility in Texas and another being held in Orange County Jail in New York state file a class action lawsuit on behalf of those facing removal due to the cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. Despite a ruling stopping such removals by the Chief Judge of the District Court of the District of Columbia, James Boasberg, three aircraft bound for El Salvador take off from airfields in Texas. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is on one of those airplanes. Boasberg's ruling is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a majority of the justices rule that Boasberg cannot prevent detainees being sent to El Salvador under the auspices of the Administrative Procedure Act. However, the Court affirms that the detainees have a right to due process and can request relief through habeas petitions. Therefore, lawyers begin filing habeas petitions in various District Courts on behalf of those potentially subject to removal.

Separately, lawyers working on behalf of Abrego Garcia file suit in District Court in Maryland. Government lawyers concede that Abrego Garcia was removed in error. Judge Paula Xinis rules that the government must "effectuate" the return of Abrego Garcia. This case is appealed, eventually reaching the Supreme Court, where in a 9-0 ruling, the justices say that the government must "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. When the government fails to take any steps to comply with the ruling, Xinis begins a discovery process to determine whether the government should be held in contempt. Similarly, Judge Boasberg, whose original order to stop the aircraft to El Salvador was ignored, finds probable cause for holding the government in contempt for disregarding his ruling. Both Xinis' and Boasberg's rulings are appealed.

On April 18, Venezuelan detainees held in detention centers in the Southern District of Texas, a district in which a judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing removals to El Salvador, are suddenly moved to different prisons in the Northern District of Texas, a district in which no TRO has been issued. Prisoners are later placed on buses that head toward the airport before, in a late-night drama, abruptly turning around. While that is happening, lawyers rush to a variety of courts attempting to stop what they believe are imminent flights to El Salvador. In Washington, DC, attorneys are able to get an emergency hearing before Judge Boasberg. While Boasberg is sympathetic, he believes that the previous Supreme Court decision has tied his hands and that he is unable to do anything. In the Northern District of Texas, the appeals are unanswered. Lawyers also go directly to the Supreme Court where their request is assigned to Justice Samuel Alito. Alito refers it to the full court and after 1 a.m., the Court issues a 7-2 ruling halting removals to El Salvador. Alito dissents from the decision due to his belief that procedure was not properly followed, but even he affirms that the government must provide due process to those detained.

This is where things stand now, and if this were indeed a novel, this chapter might end here on a cliffhanger. Readers would be left wondering about the destiny of the students and whether they will be deported or if the courts will rule in their favor. There would be suspense about the government's next move. Will it concede to the Supreme Court and stop removals to El Salvador, or will it ignore the Court's rulings and proceed anyway? What about Abrego Garcia? Will he remain in El Salvador, or will his supporters finally win his return? As the story moves towards its climax, the drama builds. But this is not a novel. It is the reality that Trump has brought upon us. Real people's lives are being upended. Abrego Garcia is separated from his wife and three children. Mahmoud Khalil's wife is near to giving birth to their first child. Rümeysa Öztürk, whose "crime" is nothing more than coauthoring an op-ed that was critical of Israel, should be finishing her studies but is, instead, held in detention as if she were a dangerous criminal. Meanwhile, languishing in CECOT are such men as Reyes Barrios, determined to be a gang member due to a tattoo he has that honors his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid, and Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay make-up artist who has tattoos of crowns, one inscribed with the word "Mom" and the other "Dad". With them is Merwil Gutiérrez, a 19-year-old who was living in New York City and was arrested even though he was not the person that ICE agents were attempting to arrest. He was literally an innocent bystander who has no criminal history and no known gang ties. America has become a country where innocent people can be grabbed off the streets by masked agents and whisked off to a foreign gulag. We have become the country that we grew up being warned about. This is not a novel; it is reality.

At the root of this story is whether due process will continue to be a right in the United States. As in most novels, this story has heroes and villains. This novel's biggest hero to date is Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, a previously unassuming, practically invisible legislator. Van Hollen understood the importance of what is at stake and has risen to the moment. A host of generally unknown and unheralded attorneys also deserve praise for their heroism. Among the biggest surprises is Bill Kristol, a neoconservative who I have detested for much of my life. He now supports calls for ICE to be abolished, essentially aligning himself with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. Kristol has his faults, but on this issue, he understands true American values. Similarly, David Brooks, a writer whose picture should be used to illustrate the entry for "milquetoast centrist" in the dictionary, is calling for mass protests. Bret "Bretbug" Stephens is also getting in on the act and criticizing Trump for using antisemitism as a justification for attacking academic freedom — a crackdown that included the arrest of the students described above. Even Joe Rogan has split from Trump on the importance of due process.

The villains of the story are, of course, plentiful. Starting with Trump and his Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller. Also included is Tom Homan, the so-called "Border Czar," and Marco Rubio, supposedly the Secretary of State but who does little involving foreign policy (those duties are performed by Steve Witkoff while Rubio is left to browse the Canary Mission website in search of students to deport). There are also those who turned out to be disappointments, who, when faced with a challenge, shied away. Chief amongst those is California Governor Gavin Newsome. Newsome apparently decided that his hopes for the presidency hinge on a campaign consisting of nothing but "Sister Souljah" moments. Hence, he has devoted himself to criticizing Democratic constituencies and, most relevant to this story, called the plight of those being detained in El Salvador a "distraction". There was also an anonymous Democrat too cowardly to give his name who, apparently confusing Andry Hernandez Romero and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, griped that "Rather than talking about the tariff policy and the economy ... the thing where his [Trump's] numbers are tanking, we're going to go take the bait for one hairdresser". These people clearly misread the moment. Americans may not be fans of undocumented immigration, but they are even less favorable toward a modern-day Gestapo seizing people off the street and sending them to a foreign hell hole.

At the moment, Trump and the Supreme Court are at a crossroads. Neither appears willing to back down. In keeping with the novelistic approach of this post, we might hope that now would be a good time for something akin to the "Avengers Assemble" movie scene. As the Supreme Court justices step forward, they are joined by the Congress, the media, universities, law firms, and masses of people. But it is probably not going to be like that. Republicans in Congress are complicit with Trump. Many top law firms have surrendered to the President. Similarly, among universities, several have sought compromise and offered concessions. As for the mainstream media, those who are not outright cheerleaders have largely sold out. Yet, among all of these groups, there are those who have chosen to fight. Therefore, all is not lost. So, tune in next week, I guess, to see how this drama continues.