Aggravated, to put it mildly, because he challenged his deportation to El Salvador, now the government threatens to deport Kilmar Agrego Garcia to Uganda, although he has not been found guilty of any crime. Offered a plea deal, Abrego has simply requested a trial by jury, which most of us assume is our right when charged with any crime. An immigration judge had previously granted him withholding of removal, a form of protection under immigration law, but the new regime just ignores that fact.
The government has removed not just persons convicted of serious crimes, but persons who took plea deals for minor traffic offenses, and persons neither charged nor guilty of a crime. Families have been broken up, creating more single parent families than even changes in divorce law. These are the more public aspects of the new regime in its attempts to eliminate non-white people.
But, quietly and insidiously, the new regime abruptly halted the processing of green card applications by refugees and asylees, persons guaranteed protection under the law. But it seems like following the law is something beyond the scope of this government.
Prayer for the Day
Welcome us, O God, as Abraham welcomed the strangers,
Wash our feet with the water of your Spirit,
Feed us with the food of your understanding broadening our vision,
Share with us the love and laughter we find in you.
Move us beyond our traditional ideas of welcome and hospitality,
So we may more truly reflect the One who offered himself to others,
In the name of the One who shows us how to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist (1819-1895)
People who think that you can wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)
When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers.
Proverbs 21: 15