This is how Trump has become America's bully-in-chief

LOS ANGELES

- Eric Lewis, The Independent

The Trump administration makes clear nearly every day that the rule of law is for chumps.

It has been nearly three months since they deported 137 Venezuelans without hearings to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where they are being held indefinitely in horrific conditions. Others have been deported to third countries with which they have no connection. Many have been deported in clear violation of federal court orders enjoining the administration from doing so. Judges have repeatedly held that deportation without notice and a hearing is illegal. The administration has claimed to have no power to obtain the return of people sent, even in defiance of court order, because they are no longer in the United States. Eight detainees were being sent to South Sudan, one of the world's worst conflict zones. A Boston judge said it was “unquestionably in violation of this court's order”. Rather than returning them, the Trump administration diverted the plane to another African country wracked by conflict, Djibouti, where they are held in a shipping container.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Venezuelan that the administration admitted had been deported by mistake, and had been cleared to remain in the United States because of a legitimate fear of gang violence, was accused by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, of being an MS-13 gang member himself. Secretary Noem declared that he would never return to the United States.

On Friday, the Trump administration were somehow able to obtain the consent of El Salvador's President to send him back, but only after a quick indictment was obtained accusing him of being a human trafficker, based on a 2022 traffic stop where other migrants were in his van. For more than three years Garcia checked in monthly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who knew of the traffic stop and saw no wrongdoing.