Our nation stands on the brink of an authoritarian collapse, and I am heartbroken that so many Americans are asleep at the wheel as our government tramples our Constitutional rights.
Although we often fumbled, the United States once prided itself on fairness and justice. Now, a reckless regime shreds our democracy with impunity.
A case in point.
On March 15, 2025, our government rounded up 238 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men. It deported them to El Salvador, dumping them into CECOT — the Terrorism Confinement Center — a prison synonymous with torture and dehumanization.
These men aren’t just numbers in a policy memo. They are human beings. While some of them entered the U.S. illegally, that does not justify subjecting them to such brutal, inhumane conditions.
CECOT prisoners do not receive visits, mail, or communicate with their families.
The furniture in the 80-man cells consists of tiered metal bunks with no sheets, pillows or mattresses, an open toilet, a cement basin and plastic bucket for washing and a jug for drinking water. It is more of a concentration camp than a prison.
CBS’s 60 Minutes exposed the reality behind these deportations. Journalists dug through internal documents, combed through court records, and pieced together a story that should anger every American: 75% of these deported men have no criminal record, while another 22% are convicted only of petty, nonviolent offenses — shoplifting, trespassing, nothing that warrants a descent into hell.
Only a handful faced serious charges. Yet, Donald Trump used an outdated law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, to ship them to a brutal foreign prison.
On the same day as the deportation, Judge James Boasberg ruled that flights carrying migrants should return to the United States. In response, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who Trump paid $6 million to incarcerate the men, posted on social media with the caption “Oopsie… Too late.”
He shared footage of guards hurrying the men off the planes and added a laughing/crying emoji. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted the clip.
One of those men was Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia, who admittedly crossed our border illegally after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, built a better life in America. He worked hard as a union apprentice, married and raised a family. In 2019, a judge recognized that sending him back to a violent homeland would jeopardize his life and granted him “withholding of removal” status.
His attorneys said in court filings that Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly, and the Department of Homeland Security issued him a work permit.
Instead of honoring that ruling, ICE arrested him again, snatched him from his family, and, in a cruel twist of fate, deported him to the notorious CECOT.
Abrego Garcia’s wife discovered the truth about her husband’s whereabouts from Bukele’s propaganda videos — a sick, calculated spectacle designed to paint him as a dangerous criminal.
These videos dehumanize and humiliate, stripping families of the chance to grieve and fight for their kin’s rights with accurate information.
Trump initially pledged to abide by a Supreme Court decision ordering the return of Abrego Garcia. However, once the court ruled, he openly defied the unanimous decision. He invited Bukele to the Oval Office to mock our country openly.
The administration’s arrogance in ignoring the Supreme Court’s mandate is not just a violation of justice; it is a middle finger to everyone who believes in democracy.
When our representatives disregard judicial authority, they signal that the laws that once united us no longer matter to them.
This is an existential threat to our nation’s soul. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, conservative or liberal. It doesn’t matter who you think should use which bathroom.
Trump yukked it up with Bukele, telling him to build more prisons to house American citizens.
He claims to target only “the worst of the worst,” but history shows otherwise. His administration’s immigration dragnet has always swept up the innocent along with the guilty.
We cannot sit by while the Trump regime guts our institutions, ignores our courts and betrays our values.
We must speak out, write to our elected officials, protest and organize. Silence is complicity.
The future of our democracy is at stake. If we do not act, we will one day wake up and find the country we knew — flawed but striving — has vanished into the hands of those who rule by fear.
Now is the time to fight back. Hands off our democracy.
Peggy Jones can be emailed at Pj421847@gmail.com