The Sentinel: Federal Government

Illinois lawyer says Kilmar Obrego Garcia case is a ‘constitutional crisis’

"The idea that the U.S. government is absolutely flouting our constitutional right to due process is terrifying, ..."

by Judith Ruiz-Branch
Illinois News Connection

CHICAGO - An Illinois law professor is weighing in on what she called a "very public and open test of due process" for immigrants being deported from the United States without court hearings.

On Wednesday, a U.S. district judge denied the Justice Department's request to further delay the wrongful deportation case of a Maryland man, Kilmar Obrego Garcia, who was sent to a prison in El Salvador. Both a U.S. District Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" his return.

Victoria Carmona, clinical professor of immigration law, Chicago-Kent College of Law, said regardless of citizenship status, the lack of due process for one person is a crisis for everyone.

"The idea that the U.S. government is absolutely flouting our constitutional right to due process is terrifying, because if they're going to do it for one person, this is the test case," Carmona explained. "This is to see what can the government get away with and start pushing the odometer further and further away from due process. And it should be scary to everyone."

The government now has until May 5 to report any efforts it is making to comply with the court orders. In the meantime, Gov. JB Pritzker said Illinois is looking into ways to cut any state financial ties to Salvadoran companies in protest of that government's imprisonment of hundreds of deportees taken from the U.S. without court hearings.

Obrego Garcia already had a set of protections which said he could not return to his native country of El Salvador for fear of government persecution. The Justice Department said deporting him was an administrative error, although the Trump administration insists he is affiliated with a gang.

Carmona pointed out both countries' leaders are making the case more difficult to resolve.

"From El Salvador's perspective, I'm sure they're upset because their citizen had essentially claimed protections and saying that the El Salvadoran government would harm him if he returned," Carmona observed. "But this idea that the U.S. has no position to facilitate his return is an absolute lie."

Whatever happens to Obrego Garcia, Carmona added the unprecedented nature of the executive branch ignoring judicial orders has set the U.S. up for a constitutional crisis.

"At this point, I think Congress should be looking at impeachment," Carmona contended. "If Trump is going to clearly violate the Supreme Court orders, the resolution is impeachment."

Other interesting articles:

Legal experts call arrest of Wisconsin judge 'extreme and unnecessary'

Federal authorities walked Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan out of her Milwaukee courtroom in handcuffs.

by Judith Ruiz-Branch
Wisconsin News Connection

MILWAUKEE - Legal experts and advocates are outraged over the arrest of a Milwaukee judge last week who was charged with helping an undocumented defendant avoid arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Federal authorities walked Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan out of her Milwaukee courtroom in handcuffs. They said she allowed an undocumented defendant appearing in her courtroom to use a side door exit to avoid ICE agents who were waiting for him. The agents later apprehended him.

Protests have since broken out in response to the arrest and legal experts are calling the charges extreme and unnecessary.

John Gross, clinical associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, described it as a photo op for federal prosecutors.

Dugan is charged with obstruction of proceedings and concealing a person, and faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine.

"Federal law enforcement is trying to send some kind of message to let state officials know that they will try to aggressively prosecute anyone who can be viewed as interfering in any way with their agenda," Gross contended.

In a post on X last week, Tom Homan, President Donald Trump's border czar, warned anyone who impedes enforcement efforts or conceals "illegal aliens" will be prosecuted. Dugan is charged with obstruction of proceedings and concealing a person, and faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine.

Ray Dall'Osto, partner at Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin and Brown, has practiced law in Milwaukee since 1977. He said the complaint against Judge Dugan contains misperceptions and factual inaccuracies. It is common practice for lawyers and defendants to use side doors in courtrooms like Dugan's, Dall'Osto explained, which often have full dockets.

What is uncommon and unprecedented, he pointed out, is having six officers from different federal agencies show up unannounced to a state courthouse for one immigration arrest.

"This is part of the Trump administration's gathering and requiring all federal law enforcement, no matter what, whether it's alcohol, tobacco, and firearms or DEA or FBI, to basically become immigrant catchers," Dall'Osto asserted. "Unfortunately, that's taking them away from the real crimes."

He argued Dugan is being targeted as part of a larger agenda the Trump administration has against judges. Removing her from the bench in the interim, he added, places a significant burden on an already taxed judicial system in Milwaukee.

"Again, this is highly atypical when you have offenses of this nature, particularly of someone who is not a flight risk, who is a known upstanding citizen and a lawyer and a judge, to do that, that's outrageous and totally unnecessary."

Other interesting articles:

Commentary |
“Hands Off” rallies across the nation were patriotism in action

We saw fellow Americans join in support to defend what’s best about our country at these rallies.

by Peter Montgomery
OtherWords

Millions of Americans in more than 1,200 cities and towns gathered with friends and neighbors on April 5 in a beautiful, energetic, nonviolent, and urgently needed expression of patriotism.

The Hands Off! protest drew well over 1,000 residents to the Champaign, IL, rally at Westside Park on April 5.

We used our freedom of speech to send urgent messages to our political leaders: Respect the rule of law and constitutional checks and balances. And stop sacrificing Americans’ well-being by gutting the government’s ability to protect workers, consumers, communities, and the environment.

The gatherings were also a call to our fellow Americans to defend what’s best about our country, and to resist the destructive policies of President Donald Trump and his chainsaw-wielding billionaire buddy Elon Musk.

In our politically divided times, we often think simplistically about “red” and “blue” states. We talk as if our differences mean we don’t have anything important in common. It’s not true. People turned out from Alabama to Alaska, Tennessee to Texas, and Missouri to Montana.

Liberals and conservatives and everyone in between can find common ground in the idea that the Constitution should protect all of us. That we all benefit from clean air and water, scientific research, and basic public health capabilities.

Whatever our political leanings, we should fear and resist the idea that the government can rob people of their rights and freedom and make them disappear into foreign prisons without any way to prove their innocence. We should fear and resist government purging history from websites, books from libraries, and ideas that break with “official” ideology from museums and classrooms.

Many people have been dismayed to see powerful institutions like law firms, universities, and media companies give in to bullying from the president. We get discouraged by repeated failures of courage from elected officials who have sworn to uphold the Constitution.

But despair doesn’t get us anywhere. Action does. That’s why the April 5 gatherings were so important. People braved wind and rain, overcame their own hesitations and fears, and expressed their concerns and hopes for our future on creative, angry, funny, and inspiring signs.

Being together was a reminder that there is power in numbers. Courage can be contagious. Momentum is building.

Protests aren’t the only way Americans are fighting for what they love about this country.

Nonprofit legal groups have filed dozens of legal challenges to defend our rights and stop lawbreaking by the Trump administration. State attorneys general are doing the same. More than 500 law firms have risked retaliation from the president by signing a legal brief opposing the ways he’s abusing power to intimidate and punish lawyers for the work they do.

Senator Cory Booker recently inspired millions of Americans by speaking on the Senate floor for more than 25 hours about the ways people are being hurt by the actions of this administration. “It’s not left or right,” he said, “It’s right or wrong.”

Booker broke a record held by the late Senator Strom Thurmond, who made his place in history by blocking civil rights legislation. So it was appropriate that Booker quoted the late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis — who, Booker recalled, “said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation.”

Congratulations to everyone who turned out on April 5 to create “good trouble.” Prepare to do it again and again — and invite family, friends, and neighbors to join.

Defending democracy is not one-and-done. America was founded by people who rejected being subject to the whims of a king. In our time, if we are going to preserve and strengthen government by “we, the people,” we are the people to do it.

Peter Montgomery is a Senior Fellow at People for the American Way. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

Commentary |
Are they paid protesters? So what?

by Cab Ivanovich

An astonishing number of Trump supporters took the dangling video bait and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.

After last weekend's Hands Off! protests across the country, TikTok creator @redsaidblue posted a satirical video, sprinkled with subtle digs at popular MAGA stereotypes, in which she claimed to be attending the protest as a paid participant. In the video, she described what she could and couldn’t wear, who her point of contact was, and that she would receive a bonus for bringing a sign.

"I got paid $100 for going to the protest, and I got an extra $10 for bringing the sign," she confesses to viewers in character as a Trump supporter going over to the other side to make a few bucks. "Overall, it was a pretty good experience. The people were pretty nice."

A MAGA supporter on X (formerly Twitter) with over 200,000 followers, "@TheEXECUTlONER_", posted the performance to his account and encouraged other Trump supporters to share it. The buffoonery sailed by unchecked by rational thought or rudimentary critical thinking.

There were 1,400 Hands Off! demonstrations across the country on Saturday. The majority drew well over 1,000 participants. Conservatively, someone or some entity would have spent around $140 million (before signs). The kicker: an estimated 3 million people took part in the nationwide protests. If all the marchers were punching the proverbial clock, someone would have spent $300 million—which might have been a boon to the economy after the stock market experienced its steepest plunge since COVID, during Trump’s first term.

While @redsaidblue wasn’t actually paid to protest—it's not clear if she even attended one—the blue-check MAGA user is making bank. As of this story, the video had been shared by 24,000 other accounts on the social media platform. While the young woman wasn’t actually paid for the protest, the account that posted her video is cleaning up, having collected 47,000 likes and over 3,000 comments so far.

Meanwhile, the creator began receiving negative backlash from liberals for posting the video, which she eventually took down. She is now attempting to remove copies from the internet. Supporters from the left were enraged, claiming her video added fuel to the political fire by implying extreme right conservatives aren’t smart enough to recognize when they’re being punked.

confessions of a paid protester

@redsaidblue
SATIRE - regrettable.
♬ original sound - Red Said

It appears her critics were right. The video—or screenshots with text excerpts from it—is circulating on conservative social media channels as supposed proof that liberal protesters are social justice mercenaries, reinforcing the narrative that liberals only protest against the Trump administration because they are paid.

Redsaidblue posted a follow-up video to her TikTok account yesterday, apologizing to fellow liberals for harming their movement.

"I truly thought it was so obvious that it was a joke. I thought that if anyone did take it seriously, if they shared it with someone else, the next person would be like, "Bro, that's satire".

Do paid protesters actually exist? They don't, according to an article from USA Today.

"Time after time, claims of "paid protesters" have been debunked, sometimes by the very people who made them in the first place," according to an article by John R. Roby.

Leo Gertner wrote a piece for The Washington Post entitled, "So what if protesters are paid?"

Gertner wrote, "So the next time someone tries to discredit a movement by insinuating that some of the people on the ground are being compensated, ask the all-important question: So what?"

What's the old saying? Freedom isn't free.

C-U 'Hands Off!' protesters rally against Trump administration policies and Musk-led cuts

Walking with other demonstrators around the park’s perimeter, Kathleen Toalson described the first 76 days of Trump’s second term as a “disaster.”

Champaign Hands-Off! Mobilization — Nearly a thousand people took part in Champaign-Urbana's installment of a nationwide day of action at Saturday's Hands Off! protest.

CHAMPAIGN - In a show of solidarity against President Donald Trump's trade and immigration policies, which critics say are harming families and retirement savings, more than a thousand protesters gathered Saturday at West Park near downtown Champaign for the Hands-Off! Mobilization rally.

The two-hour event featured several guest speakers who shared their thoughts on the state of the country since Trump began his second term. Large turnouts were also reported in major cities including Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., as part of a national day of action that highlighted growing dissatisfaction with the administration’s policies and service cuts.

Protester waves at passing cars at Champaign Hands-Off! rally — Standing with a long line of people along University Avenue, a protester holds up a sign as cars pass by. Many of the drivers showed their support, honking as the drove past the hundreds of Americans demonstrating against the hamfisted approach to nearly every issue the Trump administration as taken the past 75 days.

After attending a similar rally earlier Saturday near his home, John Edwards traveled from Sullivan to Champaign to take part in the demonstration. The Army veteran said he would attend a third if there were another nearby.

“They are not representing anybody but the rich,” Edwards said of the Trump administration. “We were already at one in Sullivan today. You might as well do two if you’re going to do one — and three if there’s another somewhere. We’ve got to get the word out.”

Walking with other demonstrators around the park’s perimeter, Kathleen Toalson described the first 76 days of Trump’s second term as a “disaster.”

“It’s an absolute nightmare for our nation, for our world,” she said. “It’s inconceivable to me that a nation as wealthy and prosperous as ours would turn its back on its own citizens.”

Cynthia D’Angelo, one of several speakers at the rally, criticized the administration’s policies.

“They are trying to destroy the things that are good about America. We are a leader in science. We are a leader in higher education and training future scientists, and they are trying to destroy all of that,” she said. “I feel like it is important for people to speak up and make a statement about what they believe.”

Cynthia D'Angelo at a rally in Champaign — Cynthia D'Angelo, one of many speakers defending American values, delivers remarks at the Champaign Hands Off! rally at Westside Park.

Hands-Off! was the largest coordinated day of demonstrations by concerned citizens across the country since Trump began his second term, with events held at more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states. According to The Associated Press, over 150 organizations participated in organizing the peaceful rallies.

When asked about her views on how the administration is running the country, Urbana resident Terri Barnes laughed while walking with the procession.

“I think they are evil and pathetic. They are stronger than people anticipated,” she said. “Evil. Definitely evil.”

Photo Gallery

Sentinel photos by Clark Brooks

Terri Barnes walks with a friend around Westside Park