Ex-U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade
Former Detroit U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade weighs in on the controversy surrounding Kilmar Abrego, the Maryland man the Trump administration admits was deported in error to an El Salvador prison. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that authorities must help facilitate his return.
In a guest column in the Detroit Free Press, McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a regular commentator on MSNBC, writes:
The case creates a danger for every American.
When I served as U.S. Attorney, I helped enforce immigration laws, but we were committed to doing so lawfully. Honoring the rule of law includes obeying orders of the judiciary, one of the three co-equal branches of government that checks the others. Allowing the executive branch to flout court orders undermines the legal processes that protect all of us. And if we permit lawlessness in deportations, what comes next?
The Trump administration has claimed there's little it can do to return Garcia if El Salvador won’t release him.
But McQuade points out the disingenuousness of that claim, noting that the U.S. has agreed to pay $6 million to house prisoners in El Salvador—suggesting that the U.S. is in control of Garcia’s fate.
