Due Process for Some: The Abrego Garcia Case and the Democrats' Selective Spine
Trump's deportation machine is running on impunity, but instead of rising to the moment, too many Democrats are running scared.
You'd think the Supreme Court ordering a sitting president to return a man he illegally deported might be a rallying cry for every member of the supposed “rule-of-law” party. But in 2025, the Democratic Party can’t decide if it wants to fight authoritarianism or poll-test its way into irrelevance.
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant deported in direct defiance of a federal court order, isn't just about immigration. It’s about whether any of us still have rights when a president decides we don’t. And yet, only a handful of Democrats, led by Senator Chris Van Hollen, seem to understand that. While Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to personally demand Abrego Garcia's release, other high-profile Democrats have responded with radio silence, hand-wringing, or dismissive shrugs.
Gavin Newsom, while suing Trump over tariffs (a worthy fight in its own right), called the Abrego Garcia case “the distraction of the day.” This wasn’t just tone-deaf, it was self-sabotage. When Trump is openly flouting the Supreme Court and locking up a protected U.S. resident in a foreign prison, calling it a “distraction” sounds a lot like appeasement.
Trump certainly isn’t distracted. He’s busy mocking Van Hollen on Truth Social and enjoying the divide among Democrats like a cat toying with a wounded bird. His allies are smearing Abrego Garcia with new, conveniently timed accusations, dredging up an old restraining order that his wife has since rescinded, and ignoring the fact that even guilty people are entitled to due process. Which is the entire effing point!
But instead of seizing on this as a defining moment to demonstrate the moral rot of Trumpism, some Democrats are paralyzed by polling. They’re afraid of immigration as a topic because Trump polls better on it. The irony is, he's underwater everywhere else. According to a CNBC poll released this week, majorities disapprove of his handling of tariffs, inflation, and the overall cost of living. If Democrats were serious, they’d combine these issues, paint Trump not just as cruel, but cruel and economically catastrophic. But too often, they seem to believe Americans can only hold one thought at a time.
Strategists are whispering to reporters that Abrego Garcia isn’t a “good hero” for the cause of due process. As if constitutional rights only matter when they come wrapped in a Disney+ backstory. This isn’t a Marvel audition. It’s a test of whether Democrats will protect the rule of law for everyone or only the photogenic few.
The truth is, if we can rationalize the stripping of due process from anyone, even someone with an imperfect past, we’re already halfway down the road to authoritarianism. As Kat Abughazaleh, the progressive challenger to Rep. Jan Schakowsky, put it: “If they can do that to them, what will they do to us?”
That’s the only question that matters. Not whether Trump polls at 52% on deportations. Not whether this case cuts cleanly through suburban voter psychology. If Democrats can’t show up with moral clarity in a moment like this, they don’t just risk losing the election. They risk losing the country.