Over the past several weeks, I have been called schizophrenic, whether it be on social media, in emails from readers or jokingly from friends who seem to think I’m all over the map on the Trump administration. I thought a little clarification was due, before I take a flight over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
I am a conservative, through and through, and I have the battle scars to prove it. But being a conservative, and not a “Never Trump” liberal light, does not require I agree with everything my president does. It does not mean I have to “take one for the team,” when that one is a curve ball to the head that will give me a permanent concussion. Sometimes, you just have to call them as you see them.
So yes, Donald Trump and his Keystone Cop minions acted like third world despots when they removed Salvadoran refugee Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador, even though they knew that he was protected by an order that had been issued by a Trump-era judge. There is no gilding the lily here, no “well maybe they made a mistake but it was unintentional,” no “well he was a gang member (yeah? Prove it!) so he’s no great loss,” no “Geez Christine, can’t you let this one pass, because at least he won’t rape and kill someone like poor Laken Riley.”
None of it. There is no excuse for what was done. It was an egregious error, and now the error is beginning to look like deliberate illegality. A federal judge has ordered the Salvadoran be returned to the U.S., and the government is pretending it does not have the power to do so.
They are lying.
This is what a retired ICE agent with forty years of experience under six presidents wrote to me:
“Interesting what the administration is saying about their inability to return someone to the U.S. given that that person is in custody at the administration’s behest. It’s no different than someone being held in custody in Germany on a U.S.-issued INTERPOL Red Notice pending collection by the U.S. Marshals.”
So yeah, they are lying and they need to get the man back here immediately. If they do not, the United States will have just joined Russia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Sudan and a whole host of other lovely countries as a government that “disappears” its problems. It should also wrap the Statute of Liberty in styrofoam and return her to France.
On the other hand, progressives are in no position to start seizing the high ground. This weekend, a bunch of people who needed to do something with their pink hats and their poster board decided to hold yet another protest against the government. I’m fine with protests. The First Amendment is my favorite of all the amendments, except maybe for the Fourteenth, and on occasion the Sixth.
These people, many of whom probably marched against the war in Vietnam while getting blitzed on whatever controlled substance was most available, think of themselves as noble warriors. They are not. They speak about immigrant’s rights, but most of them never defended an immigrant in court, or understand the arcane laws that govern the process. They just like to say they “defend immigrants.” Many of them do understand abortion rights, because many of them probably had them, or know someone who did. Many of them are angry about their 401(k)s, as I am, but didn’t blame Joe Biden for high prices and would have forgiven him if we fell into an inflationary period.
My point is this: I can see how immoral and reprehensible Donald Trump’s administration has been with its bordering-on-fascistic initiatives in going after “illegal immigration,” while at the same time see the true faces of the people who are criticizing him in the streets.
I can walk and chew gum. I am not a team player, I suppose.
You shouldn’t be, either. And if that makes me schizophrenic, just call me Sybil. And hand me a purple crayon.
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Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
The problem with this op-ed piece began here: “They speak about immigrant’s rights, but most of them never defended an immigrant in court, or understand the arcane laws that govern the process.”
These aren’t the prerequisites to protest. There aren’t actually prerequisites to protest. The author lacks reasoning and sounds like a Fox News talking head, which further drives a wedge and more deeply draws a line in the sand between sides
I give Flowers credit for calling out the Trump administration’s lie about the inability to bring Garcia back. Trump feigns weakness at convenient times. He just wants to put anyone on a plane who is undocumented without any due process. That actually means that Trump believes we are fools and will believe that anyone who overstays a visitor’s visa is a “violent criminal.” Charles Grassley found out that conservative voters in Iowa won’t buy it, as they demanded Grassley’s attention to the matter! But, in typical MAGA style, Grassley weakly said that Congress could do nothing. SCOTUS and Congress need to recover their principles and understand that granting any president a free ride to use power as he sees fit is decidedly undemocratic! Think about what is actually being said and done and how these square with reality, like Flowers did in her article!
As the most powerful branch of government under the Constitution, it is long past time for the Congress to start doing their jobs.
Instead, we have a tinpot despot running things, because the Republican Party is too timid to do what they were elected to do – use the law to protect the citizenry. This is particularly egregious where we have a wannabe dictator who hasn’t ever read the Constitution but studies the worst despots the planet has produced.
You’re supposed to represent the People, not some mendacious hustler who wouldn’t know the truth if he tripped over it. You wanted this job – now do it!
Once again, what started as a thoughtful opinion piece ends up with the typical smearing of people who may disagree with some of her opinions. I marched against the Vietnam war clear headed and with a clear mind to bring back my two cousins who were there, my best friend’s fiancee who was there, and to keep the men whose numbers were pulled in the lottery, who walked around campus looking as if they were already dead, from having to fight in an waste of an unnecessary war. I have two friends who had abortions approximately 40 years ago; one is a Republican. The spiteful name calling and attempts to put down people who she disagrees with shows me a person who is unable to swim beyond the shallow waters. Bless her heart.
Well said!
Well said, Sick and Tired.