The Trump administration pursued deportation of immigrants lacking legal status while also targeting immigrants with legal status through early executive actions aimed at undoing birthright citizenship and curtailing refugee programs. The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland husband and father deported in error and repeatedly detained after release from El Salvador, has been used as a high-profile test of deportation policy. The federal government has limited his time with family and re-arrested him. The deportation effort fits a broader pattern of mass-deportation attempts that include reported abuses in detention centers. The administration has also moved to vet and potentially revoke visas of legal immigrants who speak out.
Donald Trump won the presidency in part on promises to deport immigrants who have criminal records and lack legal status. But his earliest executive orders-trying to undo birthright citizenship, suspending critical refugee programs-made clear he wants to attack immigrants with legal status too. In our series Who Gets to Be American This Week?, we'll track the Trump administration's attempts to exclude an ever-growing number of people from the American experiment.
President Donald Trump and his administration are determined to make a statement out of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland husband and father who-by the Department of Justice's own admission-was deported by mistake in March. The federal government has relentlessly pursued Abrego Garcia's deportation since he was released from El Salvador's custody, allowing him just a few days to reunite with his family until they again arrested and detained him this week.
Abrego Garcia's deportation has become a high-profile test case for the administration's deportation policy, because of both its (self-admittedly) unlawful nature and because both political parties have elevated it as they make their respective cases to the public. But it's also part of a massive trend of the administration's attempts at mass deportation-an effort that includes abuses at detention centers both at home and abroad.
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