Hold on a minute. The Trump administration is so eager to punish the guy who was accidentally deported to that gangster prison in El Salvador that it’s making a deal with another illegal immigrant whose criminal record is even worse?
It sounds crazy, especially when you consider how the government has shown no mercy to illegal immigrants, just as President Trump promised when he took office five months ago. But court documents make it clear that a convicted criminal is getting a big break.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident here illegally, got sent by mistake to the El Salvador prison. His return was delayed for weeks, even after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the government to get him back.
The case made news for a long time — partly because the administration acted as if it couldn’t decide whether to obey a Supreme Court order. More likely, it was waiting for a grand jury to indict Abrego Garcia for smuggling migrants.
It turns out, according to The Washington Post, that the indictment included testimony from an illegal immigrant who owned the SUV, packed with illegal immigrants, that Abrego Garcia was driving when he was arrested in Tennessee. And this guy is the exact type of person who comes to mind when immigration critics complain about crime.
Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, 38, has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegally reentering the United States. He is a three-time felony convict whose crimes include a drunken gunfire spree in Texas in which he took out the windshield of a car. He has been deported five times and was heading toward a sixth boot until the government learned of his connection to Abrego Garcia’s case.
The Post reported that the Justice Department is making a deal with Hernandez because it is determined that Abrego Garcia will never be a free man in the United States. It always helps a prosecution to have the testimony of the defendant’s accomplices, but this case is not too complicated.
If Abrego Garcia is here illegally, just convince a court that he does not deserve asylum and send him away. Making a deal with a three-time felon is a high price to pay to punish one man.
The lengths to which the Justice Department has gone to ensure Hernandez’s cooperation are astounding. The Post wrote that he has been moved from a prison to a halfway house, from which he is scheduled to be released in January. The government has given him permission to stay in the country for a year, and a Homeland Security agent testified in a hearing about Abrego Garcia’s case that Hernandez also is likely to receive a work permit.
All this generosity to a three-time convict, an illegal immigrant who has either been arrested or in prison every year since 2015?
No doubt the Justice Department will turn on Hernandez after his one year expires and get him out of the country, but ignoring his record just to convict Abrego Garcia is bizarre. Prosecutors usually get lower-ranking people to turn on those above them. This time, though, the SUV owner is turning on his driver.
It makes you wonder what the people in power see as Abrego Garcia’s most serious crime. It’s not MS-13 gang membership, as originally claimed. Ultimately, there are too many resources dedicated to what has to be a fairly routine illegal immigration case.
Abrego Garcia’s sin is evident. Without doing anything but getting arrested and sent to prison by mistake, his case embarrassed President Trump. Thus the hammer must fall.
