No. of Recommendations: 11
Well, according to Time magazine it turns out that the Trump administration could have legally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia in 2019 but choose not to.
During his first term, Donald Trump’s administration had a chance to challenge Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s protection from deportation, but didn’t take it, according to court documents reviewed by TIME. In October 2019, an immigration judge decided Abrego Garcia shouldn’t be removed because of violent gang threats he faced if he returned to El Salvador. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement had 30 days to appeal that ruling. No appeal was filed, according to the court documents.
The little-noticed episode was a key part of the long saga of Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian sheet metal apprentice living in Maryland who was accused of being an MS-13 gang member and mistakenly sent in March by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. And it points to the main beef the courts have with Trump over his deportation actions: Trump can deport people from the country, but when he does, he has to follow the law.The immigration judge who looked at the information alleging Abrego Garcia’s gang ties provided by the Department of Homeland Security determined it wasn’t sufficient to prove he was a member of the gang but gave both parties 30 days to appeal his decision.
There was no appeal by the Trump administration.
John Sandweg, who was the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama administration, says that ICE attorneys would usually appeal such a decision if they thought that the person was a public safety threat. “I do think that’s indicative that they didn’t have serious concerns about this guy from a public safety perspective,” Sandweg says. “Otherwise, in cases where they do, they absolutely appeal.” Again, this case has nothing to do with whether or not Abrego Garcia is a good guy, a bad guy or somewhere in between but about the rule of law and due process.
For the time being we are still a democracy. Let's see if we remain one.
time.com - Trump caved on abrego garcia deportation move in 