Our Constitution guarantees due process to every person, whether a citizen or not. This means we all have the right to a hearing before a judge if suspected of breaking the law. But our president, himself a convicted felon, doesn’t care about such things. No, Donald Trump is not bound by rules that have governed our nation for most of its 250 year history. His willingness to ignore established laws, Congressional authority, and now, even the U.S. Supreme Court, has landed us all in a very perilous situation, indeed.

In the middle of March, the Trump administration sent 3 planes to El Salvador carrying 238 men to be locked up in one of the most brutal prisons imaginable. He claimed all were violent criminals; members of notorious gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13. No evidence was provided to support these claims, and no opportunity was given to defend against them.

Investigations now show that most were not criminals at all. Only about a dozen are accused of violent offenses like rape and murder. To be clear, violent offenders should not be allowed to remain in this country, but like it or not, even they are entitled to due process.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man the Trump administration initially admitted was deported in error, has become a symbol of the callous disregard that characterizes every aspect of this increasingly lawless regime. Garcia left El Salvador at the age of 16 to escape a gang that extorted money from his family’s business and threatened physical harm. He joined his brother, a legal Maryland resident, and began working to establish his own residency. He has no criminal record and denies gang membership. An immigration judge decided in 2019 that Garcia should not be returned to El Salvador because of legitimate concerns for his safety. He was picked up by ICE while driving with his disabled 5 year old son. The ICE officers did not present a warrant. Now he is imprisoned with members of the same gang he tried to get away from. The White House and members of Trump’s cabinet refer to him as a “terrorist,” and are refusing to do anything to get him back. They have defied orders of a district court judge and now are defying the U.S. Supreme Court, as well. During a visit from El Salvador’s president, the self-described “coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office a couple of days ago, no request was made to facilitate Garcia’s release. Bukele livestreamed the event on X and Trump can be heard telling him, “We want to do homegrown criminals next,” and “You gotta build about five more places,” This means our government plans to add to the $6 million already paid Bukele, so in the future the prisons could be used to incarcerate American citizens. Anyone the government deems undesirable, including people viewed as political enemies, could be rounded up without due process and sent away to another country.

The limited guardrails that existed in the first Trump administration are gone. The people who would stand up to his worst impulses have been replaced with sycophants and toadies who heap praise on the “Dear Leader” and perform the most grotesque displays to prove their loyalty. Kristi Noem, the head of Homeland Security, recently stood in front of the same Salvadoran prison for a propaganda video; her face, like so many in Trump-World, now altered by plastic surgery, Botox and expensive dental work. She appears before a cell filled with men, their heads shaved and their shirts removed to show their tattoos. On her wrist is a $50,000 gold Rolex watch. She warns, this prison “is only one of the tools in our tool box.”

The Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime authority the Trump administration has invoked to dispense with due process, has not been used since we actually were at war during World War II. Then, even Nazis were allowed due process before being sent back to Germany.

Will 2025 be the year we lose this fundamental right, or will the Constitution and the Rule of Law prevail?

Rachel Brown is a Greenhurst resident.