When President Biden returned U.S. citizens Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan and Evan Gerskovich home after being held captive in Putin’s Russia, Americans sighed in relief.  Similarly so when two Americans—Siamak Namazi and Emad Sharghi—were freed after years of imprisonment in Iran. And when Keith Siegel was released from Hamas, Marc Fogel from Putin, and other Americans from their captors in Afghanistan, Belarus and Venezuela, President Trump earned well-deserved credit.   

So why is Kilmar Abrego Garcia still wrongfully held in an El Salvador prison after the U.S. government admitted in court filings to have mistakenly deported him there while he was lawfully residing in the U.S., despite zero record that he committed crimes? 

And why should anyone believe the nonsense that President Trump remains powerless to obey federal court orders, including the U.S. Supreme Court, to return Abrego Garcia home to his wife and three children (each with disabilities)?

There is no world in which a U.S. president and those promoting that nonsense believe what they’re telling us.  What they do believe is that they can get away with it by imposing their manufactured version of reality upon the one we actually live in, by assuming we’ll ignore what our eyes and ears tell us, and that we haven’t brains enough in our heads. 

So where are Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Josh Riley on all this?  If people lawfully residing in this country can be snatched from the street, sent to a foreign prison and left to rot without due process or credible supporting evidence, and if a U.S. president can ignore court orders by refusing to lift a finger, then no U.S. citizen is safe.  

Dave Colavito
Rock Hill, NY