Human Rights and Democracy

The Trump administration has tried to bend the rules on several policies, including human rights and democracy. Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case is an example to all Americans of what the new administration can do to violate people’s rights, especially when it comes to immigrants. It does not matter if they have the correct documentation to be here or not; the Trump administration will try to get them out one way or another. Some people are in favor of this because they want a secure border, like most of us do, so they are willing to let things slide, like the fact that Kilmar was never supposed to be deported back to El Salvador in the first place. It was court-ordered back in 2019 because his life was in danger in El Salvador. The government believes what they hear, that he is a member of MS-13, which is an extremely brutal gang. I do see where the Trump administration is coming from; they want our nation to be free of these gangsters coming in from other countries, causing nothing but problems for the U.S. authorities, but authorities still have to follow the rules as well to make sure they have the right people under arrest. Everyone residing in the United States, regardless of immigrant status, is supposed to be allowed due process. This did not happen with Garcia, he was just arrested and put on a plane to El Salvador, where he was placed in prison. Even though he does not have a criminal record, and there is no proof that he was a part of the MS-13 gang. 

Another example of this happening is Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested back in March and taken to a detention center in Louisiana, and has been held there since March 8^th, 2025, waiting to see what the courts decide they want to do with him. Khalil was a protester against the war in Gaza who was here legally and was taking the side of the Palestinians. For this reason, he was accused of being antisemitic and accused of supporting the terrorist group Hamas, which initially started the war in Israel. The Trump administration cited a 1952 law that empowers the government to order someone deported if their presence in the country could pose unfavorable consequences for American foreign policy. This is how they justified making these people disappear with no knowledge of what was going on. 

I can see how the people who want him deported feel like letting somebody into our country and letting them study at one of the top universities in the nation could be considered disrespectful if he was supporting the side that was causing Jewish students to have to be scared to walk around campus and to go against the United States feelings towards the war by joining a massive protest where property was being destroyed and students were being intimidated. I do not think he meant it that way at all. I think he was just tired of watching the people of Gaza being slaughtered every day with little to no humanitarian help. But the protests went too far with the destruction of property, and the way the Jewish students were being treated like they did not belong there. 

They still should not place the blame on one man who was peacefully protesting and took no part in any of the illegal activities. There is a problem in the country when people are getting snatched out of their homes and disappearing from the rest of the world with no knowledge of what is happening or where they are going. In Khalil’s case the judge has said he was okay to be deported back to his country of origin. In Kilmar’s case the court ordered that the U.S. do anything to help facilitate bringing him back to the United States, but the president of El Salvador is not going to release him back to the United States and Trump doesn’t want to take him back anyway so the judges' rulings in this case did not help his case much unfortunately. Right now, it seems that the Trump administration is making an example out of these people so they can get more control over the situation in the future. Hopefully, we can find a good way to keep the border secure without violating people’s rights in the process.