Irresponsible American government leaders

To the editor:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a legal resident of the United States. He is just like you or me. Recently, the United States authorities abducted him by mistake and sent him to a concentration camp in El Salvador. The government thought he was a terrorist. The U.S. government refuses to return the man to the United States.

People are trying to stop the United States government in its action against Mr. Garcia by going through the courts. “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process ‘that is the foundation of our constitutional order,’ ” wrote the judge in the recent ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth District (on April 17, 2025).

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal resident of the United States whom US authorities abducted by mistake and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador, was now beyond the reach of American law. This is state terror: the state is presented as “strong” in its oppression of a person, but as weak in its ability to respect or enforce law said Mr. Timothy Snyder (Mr. Snyder is an American historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.)

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew.”

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”

-Martin Niemoller

Peter Engstrom

Fairmont