Letters from an American - April 15, 2025

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

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April 15th, 2025. A large crowd of protesters calling for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the Trump administration sent to a notorious terrorist prison in El Salvador, milled around the courthouse this afternoon where U.S. District Judge Paul Assinis held a hearing on the case. Anna Bauer, Roger Parloff, and Ben Wittes of Lawfare watched the hearing and explained that Judge Assinis is now building the evidence to determine whether individuals in the administration have acted in contempt of court. The court ordered the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. as well as to give updates on what they are doing to make that return happen.

To date, Judge Sinis said, what the record shows is nothing has been done. She dismissed the administration lawyer's argument that yesterday's Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and President of El Salvador, Naib Bukheli, was part of the effort to facilitate the case. As Bauer said, we all know what's going on, but it's impossible right now to know which individual is responsible for the stonewalling. For that matter, Bauer added, those speaking for the administration usually deny personal knowledge of the case, simply saying they have been made aware of the facts they are representing.

Judge Sinis called for two weeks of fact-finding to determine if the Trump regime is following her orders that it facilitate his return. The judge told Abrego Garcia's lawyers that they may conduct four depositions and apply for two more, make up to 15 document requests, and up to 15 interrogatories. These are lists of written questions that must be answered under oath and in writing. Sinis noted that every day Mr. Garcia is detained in Seacot is a day of irreparable harm." Bauer added that the Trump regime is likely drawing this out in part because it permits them to showcase the one part of their agenda that is still polling well. The stage meeting with Buckeli enabled officials to get widespread media coverage for the straight-up lie that Abrego Garcia has been found to be a member of the MS-13 gang. As Greg Sargent reported today in the New Republic, this

story came from a police officer who just weeks later was suspended for providing information to a commercial sex worker who he was paying in exchange for sexual acts. The Oval Office event also enabled White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller both to lie that the Supreme Court's unanimous decision against the administration was actually in favor of it and to rerun the litany of heinous crimes he associates with immigrants. The attention to the case has also gotten Miller airtime on news shows where he repeats those lies. The administration needs the immigration issue to play to its base but it's actually not clear that Americans like Miller's approach to immigrants. Data journalist G. Elliott Morris noted today

in strength in numbers that while polls say Americans generally like Trump's approach to immigration, a recent Reuters Ipsos poll said 49% were in favor. They hate the specifics. The same Reuters Ipsos poll says that 82% of Americans, including 68% of Republicans, think the president should obey federal court rulings even if he disagrees with them. Only 40 percent think he should keep deporting people despite a court order to stop, although 76 percent of Republicans think he should violate a court order. The questions specifically about immigration are even starker. Trump promised during the campaign that he would deport undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes and

people like that plan by an 81-point margin. But according to Morris's crunching of polls on the subject, U.S. adults oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who have lived more than 10 years in the US by a 37 point margin. They oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who are parents of US citizens by a 36 point margin. By an 18 point margin, they oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who have broken no laws in the US other than immigration laws. The more visible a Breggo Garcia's case becomes,

coupled as it is with the idea that it is a precursor to sending US citizens to CICOT, the less likely it is to be popular. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, got an earful from his constituents on the topic. Are you gonna bring that guy back from El Salvador? One man asked to applause and calls of yeah from around the room. When Grassley said no because that wasn't a power of Congress, the man replied the Supreme Court said to bring him back and others chimed in they're defying the Constitution. Trump don't care the first man said if I get an order to pay a ticket for $1,200 and I just say no, does that stand up?

Because he's got an order from the Supreme Court and he just said no. He just said screw it. It's wrong, someone in the crowd said. The first man concluded, I'm pissed. This afternoon, Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat of Maryland, noted that following his abduction and unlawful deportation, U.S. federal courts have ordered the safe return of my constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to the United States. It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release, which is why tomorrow I am traveling to El Salvador to visit Kilmar and check on his well-being and to hold constructive conversations with government officials around his release.

We must urgently continue working to return Kilmar safely home to Maryland." Trump's losing ground on his other major selling point in the 2024 election, that he would improve the economy. He promised to bring prices down on day one, but backed off on that almost immediately. Then an utterly chaotic trade war, tariffs on and off and on again, and a dramatic drop in the bond market

as well as the stock market, suggesting that the US is losing its status as a safe haven, made April an economic disaster. JPMorgan said this week that Trump's tariffs mean that he is on track to deliver one of the largest U.S. tax hikes on record, taxes that will fall on poorer Americans rather than the wealthy and corporations. Under Biden, Vietnam and the U.S. had strengthened economic ties, but yesterday China and Vietnam signed dozens of cooperation agreements to combat disruptions

caused by Trump's trade war. Today, Chinese officials stopped accepting Boeing jets or U.S. airline parts. China has also stopped accepting U. accepting US beef, turning instead to Australia. US beef exports to China have been worth $2.5 billion annually. Last Thursday, Gustav Killander of the Independent reported that, "...fund managers quietly fear Trump doesn't have a tariff plan and that he might be insane. Meetings in Washington this week did little to calm the situation. Jordan Erb of Bloomberg reported that Maros Sefkovic, the chief trade officer for the European Union, left yesterday's trade meeting in Washington about what the U.S. even wants.

Erb notes, the uncertainty around Trump's chaotic tactics, repeat with delays, retreats, new threats, and sudden exceptions and trial balloons hasn't helped. Trump also promised he would end Russia's war on Ukraine immediately, but it has become obvious that Russia's President Vladimir Putin is using Trump's desperation to deliver a peace deal to strike harder at Ukraine. Just after a visit to Moscow by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff last week, the Russians struck at the Ukrainian city of Sumy during Palm Sunday celebrations, killing at least 35 people and injuring another 119, including children. European leaders

called the attack a war crime. Trump said it was likely a mistake. After Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night that US officials are echoing Russian disinformation, Trump called for CBS, the channel on which 60 Minutes appears, to lose its license. Bloomberg reports that the U.S. refused to support a statement by the Group of Seven, or G7, an informal group of seven of the countries with the world's most advanced economies, condemning the Sumi attack. The U.S. said it wouldn't condemn the mass killing of civilians because it is working to preserve the space to negotiate peace.

One of Trump's key attacks on the Biden administration before the election was his lie that it had shortchanged the North Carolina victims of the devastating hurricane Helene by sending money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to undocumented immigrants likely to buy their votes. It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. In fact, the Biden administration and FEMA had been in the state since the start and approved FEMA's reimbursement for 100% of disaster relief, particularly emergency protective services and the removal of debris, renewable after six months. Trump won North Carolina by more than three points, but on Saturday the Trump administration denied North Carolina's application for that extension. �The need in western North Carolina remains immense.

People need debris removed, homes rebuilt, and roads restored, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein said. I am extremely disappointed and urge the president to reconsider FEMA's bad decision, even for 90 days. Six months later, the people of Western North Carolina are working hard to get back on their feet. They need FEMA to help them get the job done. Trump's approval ratings are dropping steadily with even Republican pollsters showing him underwater, meaning that more people disapprove of his presidency than approve of it. Part of Trump's fight with the Supreme Court is an attempt to demonstrate dominance as his numbers drop, but institutions as well as the courts are standing up to

him. With Trump having won concessions from Columbia University and then announced those concessions were only the beginning of his demands, other universities are banding together to defend education, academic freedom, and freedom of speech. On Monday, Harvard University took a stand against the administration's demand to regulate the intellectual and civil rights conditions at Harvard, including its governance, admissions,

programs, and extracurricular activities, in exchange for the continuation of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and a $60 million contract. Harvard is the country's oldest university, founded in 1636, and in 2024 had an endowment of more than $53 billion. In a letter noting that the administration's demands undercut the First Amendment and the university's legal rights, Harvard's lawyers wrote, The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.

Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government's terms as an agreement in principle. Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration. But Harvard didn't stop there. It turned its website into a defense of the medical research funded by the federal

grants Trump is threatening to withhold. It explains the advances Harvard researchers have made in cancer research, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, obesity and diabetes, infectious diseases, and organs and transplantations. It highlights the researchers, shows labs, and presents readable essays on different scientific breakthroughs. As the administration slashes through the government with charges of waste, fraud, and abuse, Harvard's president, Alan Garber, has made a stand on what he calls

the promise of higher education. Freedom of thought and inquiry, along with the government's longstanding commitment to respect and protect it, has enabled universities to contribute in vital ways to a free society and to healthier, more prosperous lives for people everywhere, he wrote. All of us share a stake in safeguarding that freedom. We proceed now, as always, with the conviction that the fearless and unfettered pursuit of

truth liberates humanity, and with faith in the enduring promise that America's colleges and universities hold for our country and our world. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.