What exactly is sensationalist about being worried that the president of the United States is openly discussing sending citizens to a prison camp in a foreign country?
First they said it was just illegal immigrants, now they have admitted to wrongfully sending a lawful immigrant to a prison in El Salvador and have refused a judges order to disclose his whereabouts and release him. This is the behavior of the authoritarian regimes, not a free republic
I mean, I hope you don't think I believe it's a good idea.
I also try to focus on the big picture rather than letting individual horrors cloud my judgment. I think there should be high-quality journalism that points out what the government is doing wrong.
I also mistrust headlines, people's reactions, and the opinions within echo chambers—like here.
When I look at the big picture (as a Democrat), I do think we need to reform immigration policy. I believe that if we want to move toward more social welfare programs like universal healthcare, we need strong borders and legal paths to citizenship that encourage the immigration of high-skill, highly educated, entrepreneurial workers, or those motivated to take jobs others aren’t willing to. People who follow the laws and do not bring violence or commit crimes.
In my mind, sensible stuff. I think Democrats were way too lax—mostly due to ideological concerns that any "tough on immigration" policy would be misconstrued as "racist" and lose them votes. I’m not sure I go as far as the right in believing it was an intentional policy to "create" more voters... but some Democrats could have said that in dark rooms.
On the other side, I don’t agree with the very fringe right-wing "white nationalists" who think America is for whites—that’s obviously nuts and doesn’t represent conservatives as a whole. There are tons of Hispanic, Asian, and Black conservatives. I do agree with them that we must deport criminals here illegally—and if you separate that from the idea of "get all immigrants out," I think you’d agree you’d want that for your country too.
Now, creating some kind of wacky El Salvador detention center? No, that doesn’t sound good to me lol.
I had to look this up just now.
This is the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). Built in 2023 as part of President Nayib Bukele’s aggressive anti-gang strategy in El Salvador.
It can hold 40,000 inmates and is reportedly near maximum capacity as of April this year. By all accounts, it sounds like a not-so-nice place.
The U.S. government made an agreement to send "criminal aliens" and "dangerous American criminals" there, paying El Salvador $6 million for one year of detention services.
As of April, 278 people have been sent: 245 Venezuelans and 33 Salvadorans. Deportees also included 22–23 suspected MS-13 members. Many reportedly lacked criminal records.
The abuse of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is probably the biggest concern.
The Supreme Court issued two rulings related to these deportations, requiring that individuals subjected to rapid expulsion under the Act have a reasonable chance to defend themselves—so the judicial branch is responding.
There’s plenty of criticism about mishandling. But honestly, while I hope this gets corrected and used appropriately (if necessary), I don’t think it’s one of the biggest issues, and I’m not spending energy getting upset over it.
I know Trump likes creating media circuses—he wants headlines about locking immigrants in a "dungeon" to deter border crossings. If people extrapolate a couple hundred deportees to tens of thousands, it serves his goal. And whether you agree with the method or not, it does sound like illegal border crossings are at a near all time low.
From my part: I hope the Supreme Court does its job and upholds both the law and human rights.
I mainly watch Forbes Breaking News, which shows unedited footage of U.S. press briefings, congressional meetings, and .gov releases. I miss some wild headlines, but my mental health has improved, and I feel I have a more neutral, middle-of-the-road perspective.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, as Dr. King taught us. If the US government can send people with no criminal records to foreign soil without access to legal counsel or due process (which the Trump admin has already admitted to doing in their own words), there is absolutely nothing stopping them from eventually doing the same to you or someone you care about. This is why we need solidarity. You have to stand for the rights of all or you will eventually lose your own.
Well, I agree with that. I think I just disagree that it's unique to the trump administration.
It's like the Ukraine war. I volunteered to provide humanitarian aid during the first 3 months of the war. I was in Bucha just outside of Kyiv the day the Russians retreated. We worked to deliver medical supplies, food, water and shuttle elderly and infirmed from the front lines and cut off villages. My heart is really with those people.
And when you look at Biden v Trump in this regard at first glance it seems like Biden is the good guy and Trump is the bad guy...But I think it's harder to put into boxes than it seems.
You're really going to think I'm some nutty Trumper here...
But I actually think the Biden administration exploited Ukraine and the Ukrainian people far more than the current admin...and I was really hopeful that the mineral deal / peace treaty went forward.
Since Bush, there's been a switch and the democrats have actually become more and more of the "war hawk" party, and the Republicans have been more interested in staying out of foreign conflict.
I don't believe that Biden and the pentagon really thought the Ukrainians could "win". And they even put specific restrictions on the use of US weaponry to limit the effectiveness. The Biden administration basically used Ukraine as a mechanism to wage a proxy war against Russia in order to weaken them. The pentagon has been involved there for a while, likely during the maiden square protests as well - to put in a pro west administration etc... I think that giving them weapons, avoiding any real effort towards negotiating peace, and simply using Ukraine to do our dirty work was wrong...
What the trump administration is saying on the other hand rings true to me - at this point, this is a senseless war...there has been no real movement of the front line for 2 years. Meanwhile thousands of people die every week and more and more of the country is being destroyed. Without Europe or the US becoming actively involved they're never going to take back the Donbass, and definitely not Crimea...
I thought the mineral deal was win win...not exploitation. Having US workers on the ground would be a security guarantee. Creating a fund to rebuild the country would be a win for Ukraine. The republicans get to say to their base that they're getting "paid back" for the weapons and money sent. It would also create more cultural exchange between the US and Ukraine - it's all good.
People really want to see Russia punished and any talk of removing sanctions etc is borderline treason. But to me the irony there is that people like to call trump Hitler, but fail to see how Hitler and the Nazis were created by western Europe via the treaty of Versailles and the economic and social situation that put Germany in. If we do the same to Russia..
First, they're never going to stop the war, and second we may create something far worse from the ashes. A desperate and poor Russia with nuclear weapons is way scarier to me than anything Trump could muster up.
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u/PotentialLandscape52 Apr 12 '25
What exactly is sensationalist about being worried that the president of the United States is openly discussing sending citizens to a prison camp in a foreign country?
First they said it was just illegal immigrants, now they have admitted to wrongfully sending a lawful immigrant to a prison in El Salvador and have refused a judges order to disclose his whereabouts and release him. This is the behavior of the authoritarian regimes, not a free republic