The Left’s Sudden Crusade For ‘Due Process’ Is A Political Smokescreen To Defend Mass Migration
For weeks, media bombarded Americans with reports about a “Maryland father” who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador — a sympathetic figure supposedly plucked from the streets in a suburb in Baltimore. At the time it appeared the only available detail that stained Democrats’ caricature of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was his alleged involvement in MS-13.
Such an allegation didn’t deter Democrats from rushing to his defense, with Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen going so far as to fly to El Salvador to sit down with Abrego Garcia — a surreal photo-op complete with margaritas. But as Hollen made his visit to El Salvador, new details surfaced: Abrego Garcia wasn’t just allegedly linked to MS-13 — he was also an accused wife-beater and human smuggler.
Suddenly defending Abrego Garcia as an individual — or a “Maryland father” — became politically toxic. So, the narrative shifted. Now, it was less about defending Abrego Garcia and more about defending his “due process rights.”
There’s just one problem: Abrego Garcia already had due process in 2019.
Abrego Garcia illegally crossed the border in 2011 and was detained in March of 2019. He was charged with removability and later was denied bond when an immigration judge concluded — based on evidence — that Abrego Garcia “is a verified member of MS-13” and failed to prove “that his release from custody would not pose a danger to others.” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys then filed an asylum claim six months later. This claim was also denied, though a judge did rule that Abrego Garcia could not be sent to El Salvador. As Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at the Article 3 Project, explained, “Any third country would be sufficient.”
So if it can’t be about “due process,” then what is it really all about?
It’s about sabotaging Trump’s lawful, effective, and broadly popular deportation agenda.
As CNN’s Harry Enten recently explained, immigration has become President Donald Trump’s strongest issue. In fact, as Enten pointed out, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 45 percent of Americans think the handling of immigration is on the right track now, compared to just 14 percent in December. Enten also laid out how “voters favoring a government effort to deport all 11 million” illegal aliens has jumped from 38 percent in 2016 to 56 percent in 2025.
“The American public is much more so on Donald Trump’s side now than back when he was running the first time around,” Enten said of the American public’s perception of deportation. When broken down by party affiliation, 90 percent of Republicans favor deportation, along with 61 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll cited by Enten.
The American public is not merely tolerant of deportation — they want it. They voted for it. And yet, Democrats are working to derail it because mass deportations threaten Democrats’ power. As The Federalist previously reported, “there’s a political incentive baked into” mass illegal migration.
“Congressional apportionment and Electoral College votes are based on population — not citizenship. That means every illegal alien who settles in a state — predominantly blue states — increases the representation that state gets and can dilute the representation American citizens have.” It’s a lucrative tactic, with Rep. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., saying as much in 2021.
Then, when Abrego Garcia — an El Salvadoran national — was deported, Democrats saw not a dangerous, allegedly gang-affiliated felon rightly deported but a perfect political decoy. He became the personal interest story they needed to cloak their true motive: obstructing a popular immigration policy by invoking the illusion of humanitarian concern. The propaganda press played along and for weeks emphasized his “Maryland father” status while omitting or obfuscating inconvenient facts about alleged gang ties or his removal orders.
And then, news broke of his alleged domestic abuse and human smuggling.
He became indefensible, so to speak. So the narrative had to shift, and Democrats landed on “due process!”
California Rep. Robert Garcia said in a statement that he and three fellow Democrats were in El Salvador “to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.”
It echoes a similar sentiment expressed by Van Hollen on Fox News Sunday.
“I’m not vouching for the man. I am vouching for the man’s rights, his constitutional rights to due process.”
The line was echoed across social media as well, with Matthew VanDyke, the founder of Sons of Liberty International, tweeting, “People aren’t fighting for one man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. They’re fighting for you.”
“Your Constitution, your due process, your rights. If Garcia is returned, given due process and deported, you won’t hear his name again. This isn’t about a man, it’s about our country.”
Putting aside the fact that he is correct that this is about “our country” and Abrego Garcia is not our fellow countryman — the due process claim collapses under mild scrutiny. Abrego Garcia already had due process. He was detained, heard, evaluated, and ordered removed under the law. Could he have been deported to a country other than El Salvador? Yes. Should an alleged gang-affiliated illegal alien dictate his deportation destination? Hardly.
Bringing him back to the United States under the pretense of “due process” would not only flout previous orders that stated he should be deported but also set a dangerous precedent that any deportation can be indefinitely delayed with enough political noise.
And that is precisely the objective.
This isn’t about due process. It’s about grinding Trump’s deportation machine to a halt by insisting that all 11 million (or more) illegal aliens deserve lengthy, individualized hearings to plead their personal sob stories. It’s an unworkable proposition, one that would paralyze any attempt at meaningful immigration enforcement en masse.
The left’s sudden crusade for due process is a political smokescreen. The real aim is to preserve the political dividends of mass illegal migration by delegitimizing and undermining the very policies that voters overwhelmingly support. They’re just using Kilmar Abrego Garcia — an accused gang member, wife-beater, and human smuggler — as the martyr for that cause.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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