Our energetic government employees have been vilified for inefficiency (most recently by the notorious DOGE), but the example of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia shows that federal workers can be very energetic indeed.
CNN:
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, entered the US illegally sometime around 2011, but an immigration judge in 2019, after reviewing evidence, withheld his removal. That meant he could not be deported to El Salvador but could be deported to another country. A gang in his native country, the immigration judge found, had been “targeting him and threatening him with death because of his family’s pupusa business.”
(“could be deported to another country” is inconsistent with what Democrats on X and Facebook are saying, i.e., that the noble Abrego Garcia had the right to permanent residence in the U.S.)
ChatGPT, regarding the value (in 2025 dollars) at stake in this deadly dispute:
In El Salvador, pupusas are a beloved and affordable staple. Typically, a standard pupusa costs between $0.25 and $1.00 USD, depending on factors like ingredients, size, and location.
A federal employee, in other words, determined that a gang member who didn’t like a pupusa ten years earlier (maybe the gang prefers panes rellenos?) was lying in wait for Mr. Abrego Garcia to return to El Salvador so that he could be executed. Therefore, Mr. Abrego Garcia could stay safe in the U.S.
(It’s unclear to me why Mr. Abrego Garcia is safer in Maryland than in El Salvador. The murder rates in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are more than 20X higher than in El Salvador. The border was fully open for four years and any Salvadoran, including cornmeal-hating gang members, could enter the U.S. and stay permanently temporarily (latest extension by the Biden-Harris administration, oddly in conflict with the fact that the State Department rates El Salvador as safer for American travelers than France or my beloved Sweden (see below).
Additionally, Mr. Abrego Garcia would be at risk in Maryland from his wife, with whom he apparently has a history of physical violence (ABC). Suppose that she has availed herself of her 2nd Amendment rights during Mr. Abrego Garcia’s sojourn in El Salvador? He returns to Maryland as a hero to all Democrats and is promptly filled with lead by the wife.
Surely the United States is now home to far more non-imprisoned violent Salvadorans than El Salvador itself (which successfully exported nearly all of its violent criminals to the U.S. and then imprisoned the rest).)
I’m at a loss to understand how Americans imagine that our English-speaking government workers are capable of sorting out what happened in a pupusa exchange 15 years ago.
Separately, here’s a hero of climate change alarmism:
According to Maryland Sen. Van Hollen, we’re in a “climate crisis” exacerbated by a “climate emergency.” What’s the right thing to do in that situation? Tap into a lake of Jet A and fly roundtrip to El Salvador without first making any appointments (nytimes):
It wasn’t possible to meet via Zoom or phone?
What did Mr. Garcia put in his pupusa that he is imprisoned now?
perplexed: Your question illustrates the limitless faith that Americans have in our government workers, such as immigration judges and federal judges. Something happened with a pupusa 10-15 years ago and 2,000 miles away from Maryland/DC. Without talking to any neutral witness or even an opposition witness, a U.S. government worker, who likely has never been to El Salvador nor speaks Spanish, will find the truth.
This is even more amazing than faith in a correct resolution of the #BelieveWomen cases from 20-30 years ago, e.g., in which a lithe fit actress talks about her inability to run away from the obese elderly Harvey Weinstein. In those cases, the judge can at least hear from both participants in the sex act and everyone is able to speak the same language.
I demand that Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders and AOC go to Belize to investigate this!
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/americas/belize-plane-hijack-american-shot-intl-latam/index.html
My cover’s blown so I might as well spill the beans: The amerindian female has the hots for MAGA. I had one situation where a sallow-skinned guatemalan-american broad had her blue-eyed straight-out-of-peaky-blinders-casting actual-el-salvadorean-hit-man buying me food and drinks while she publicly cuckholded [Sp?] him with me. I maneuvered things so he took her home drunk without me.
Earlier that evening I met a male retired Dominican-born veteran of the US Air Force named Leni (after Reifenstahl, who his father admired). I think me and him got along because I am a frequent reader of this blog and therefore well-informed on cool planes and cool nazis.
Later that evening things got really wild at a TERF bar popular with aviators on the JFK-LGA axis.
El Salvador might be a popular destination for wealthy immigrants of uncertain legal status in the United States.
I am clearly a lunatic and this should be considered fiction.
@blogreaders. would anyone mind dropping some science on running a cost effective private air ferry service to El Salvador from uhmmm…, let’s say… ISP.
So, you’re more concerned about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s family pupusa business than you are about the government sending people to a concentration camp in El Salvador without due process? That’s fucked up.
“Without due process”? The noble Mr. Abrego Garcia was apprehended by the Federales in 2019 and experienced due process for roughly six years (part of which resulted in a judge ordering that he could be deported from the U.S. so long as the U.S. could find some country other than El Salvador dumb enough to accept our unwanted migrants). He was further involved in due process when his wife obtained a restraining order against him. I would hope that this level of legal attention is above that afforded to the average U.S. resident, whether documented or undocumented.
So, you have no worries that you, a citizen, might get scooped up and sent to a prison in El Salvador? When did due process become optional after an arrest? If you don’t see potential harm with this Trump process than you’re an idiot (which you’re not), If you just don’t care, than fuck you.
Anon: If a US citizen such as myself does indeed end up getting sent to El Salvador without any kind of trial or plea bargain, I might start to worry. But that has never happened. So I could reasonably be just as worried about anything else that has never previously happened, e.g., hostile aliens from beyond the solar system landing in Palm Beach and demanding free rooms at the Breakers Hotel. My main protection, I think, against being sent to El Salvador is that most countries, including El Salvador, defend their borders against intruders. The Salvadorans wouldn’t want me there. As citizens of a country with open borders it is a little difficult for us to understand how a typical sovereign nation functions.
@Anonymous, Abrego Garcia was in the U.S. illegally, and he does not hold a green card. Whether or not he is a gang member, whether his life is at risk in El Salvador, or whether he poses a threat to U.S. citizens — none of that changes the fact that he was here illegally. Yes, the media is portraying his deportation as a “mistake” but at the end of the day, he entered the country illegally. End of story.
For those who come to the U.S. through the proper legal channels, it is well known that having a criminal record or ending up with one while living in the U.S. disqualifies you from getting a green card or becoming a citizen and you could be deported. That’s the law. Abrego Garcia entered illegally — that alone is grounds for removal.
What is truly baffling is this: Maryland Senator Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia in an effort to bring him back. Seriously?
If you think the “orange” man is out of touch and crazy, our lawmakers top the “orange” man’s craziness.
Sending Salvadoran citizens to El Salvador, what can be more deranged?