Rashon Venable
On April 14, 2025, President Donald Trump hosted Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House. During the meeting, members of the press sought answers from both presidents regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland-based asylum seeker who was forcefully detained in March and sent to an infamous mega-prison in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia had no pending charges or convictions. Evidence of his alleged involvement with the notorious gang MS-13 is shaky at best. The constitutional rights he was entitled to, even as an asylum seeker, were purposely ignored. Still, President Donald Trump refused to commit to following the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision directing his administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
Indeed, Trump floated the idea of sending prisoners who are U.S. citizens to El Salvador, where they would presumably be subject to its facilities’ well-documented deprivations and abuse without any pretense of due process. President Bukele was receptive to this idea.
As someone who has been incarcerated for nearly nine years for a crime I did commit, hearing about this left me in complete and utter shock. This is not how the criminal justice system is supposed to work.
In 2008, when I was 16, I killed a friend after losing control during an argument. I was arrested in 2016 and charged with murder. In 2018, I pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 19-years-to-life.
Though my legal process was far from ideal, I was still afforded certain rights that are enshrined into our constitution. I wasn’t just placed in shackles and whisked off to prison. There was an arraignment, hearings and other court appearances — all part of due process. Even after I was sentenced, there was no question that I’d serve my time in New York or that I would have access to appeal processes.
Now, these liberties are at risk. Although presidential power is supposed to only affect federal prisoners, Trump’s actions thus far offer no assurances that state prisoners may also eventually be hauled away. Those awaiting trial in county detention centers might come next. And then, those who openly defy the president may face a day of reckoning.
When everyday citizens break the law, we are held accountable for our actions. Despite the criminal justice system being steeped in racism and inequality, we are asked to respect the decisions of the court. Yet the Trump administration’s actions have displayed an unapologetic disregard for the institutions that are foundational to this country.
Since his first term, Trump has been amplifying false narratives about the justice system which have had a corrosive effect on Americans’ attitudes toward it. A Gallup poll conducted in late 2024 found that only 35% of Americans expressed confidence in American judicial systems and courts, a record low.
Meanwhile, the political divide in our country is at an all-time high. A National Bureau of Economic Research study from 2020 found that “political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years — more than in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany.”
Americans once had the ability to find middle ground amongst differences. In such polarizing times, this has become much more difficult. But the right to fundamental protections like due process ought to be something we can all still agree on.
The denial of due process to asylum seekers and the banishment of American prisoners should concern us all because it won’t stop there. Once the proverbial floodgates are opened, others will be next.
But it’s not too late to stand up for what’s right. As Timothy Snyder says in his book “On Tyranny,” “Do not obey in advance.” Now is the time to take action outside of your comfort zone.
Rashon Venable is an published essayist and poet. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.
