Stop Imprisoning People Without Cause or Due Process

Target: Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General

Goal: Return mistakenly imprisoned man and ensure due process for all federal detainees.

When roughly 500 men were seized and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador known for its alleged human rights abuses, the event created a national – and an international – incident. The controversy intensified when reporting revealed that 90 percent of the men did not have a criminal record in the United States or elsewhere. But the admitted mistaken deportation of one of these men, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, has created a potential Constitutional crisis.

Abrego Garcia, like his fellow detainees, was sent to the prison on unproven allegations that he had gang affiliations: an allegation his family fiercely denies. While the president’s administration admitted it had mistakenly apprehended Abrego Garcia due to an administrative error, it also claimed it could not and — more crucially — would not take any steps to facilitate the man’s return. Even after a federal judge ordered Abrego Garcia’s return, the administration has still done nothing. And it has deliberately ignored court orders from other judges to halt similar deportations done without due process.

Why does it matter? Due process was considered such an important civil rights benchmark that it was included in not one but two amendments to the Constitution. It helps protect the rights of any person residing in America to life, liberty, and property. Under due process, an individual the government wishes to arrest or imprison must be afforded an opportunity to contest the detainment. At the bare minimum, a detainee must be given notice of their detainment and must be allowed a legal proceeding and a decision by neutral third parties. None of these rights were afforded to any of the men summarily sent to a brutal prison in another country, where they may very well spend the rest of their lives.

If Americans permit the rights of other “undesirables” to be violated, then the slow erosion of liberties will accelerate and eventually will ensnare every American. Sign the petition below to demand the nation’s Department of Justice stand behind America’s most enduring legal principles.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Attorney General Bondi,

“No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not make exceptions or caveats for this fundamental judicial principle. And without this principle, the United States would be no better than an authoritarian nation that “disappears” its residents in the dead of night.

The Abrego Garcia case, as you well know, is not just about one man. It is about a Constitutionally affirmed right. It is about respect for the rule of law. It is about honoring the judiciary as a separate and equal branch of government. And it is about strengthening and validating American justice through meaningful and decisive action.

Stop the arrests of judges. Stop the targeting of law firms. And, most of all, stop depriving Americans of their due process. Begin by utilizing the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce federal judicial orders. Continue by rectifying this administration’s mistake and returning wrongfully detained Americans at once.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Department of Homeland Security