Trump takes a chainsaw to the Constitution and illegally deports an innocent man, stripping the father of his due process rights.

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"F*ck you with the freest of speech this Divided States of Embarrassment will allow me to have!"

- Eminem

The CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) mega-prison in El Salvador is the type of place America used to condemn. As the leader of the free world, we were supposed to be against a prison whose occupants are purposely dehumanized, confined to 100-person cells for 23Â à ? ï ? ? ï ? ? hours a day, with lights always on. We were supposed to be against making people disappear into this type of hellhole, losing contact with their families for the rest of their lives.

There was a time when El Salvador's lack of due process, imprisoning prisoners in CECOT without any access to lawyers, and trapping innocent people within this hellhole's walls, would have been an affront to our values. Those values shifted dramatically with the election of Donald Trump. In his quest to make America great again, he has destroyed what made our country exceptional.
Instead of leading the world in condemning CECOT, Trump has grown envious. Operating under a state of emergency, El Salvador's President can operate without the inconveniences of judicial oversight, due process, or conforming to fundamental human rights. As an aspiring dictator, this is Trump's wet dream.

As much as the courts have bent to Trump's wishes, opening a domestic version of CECOT would be a bridge too far. On American soil, courts would not tolerate a facility where prisoners "suffer egregious human rights abuses," including inadequate food and water, overcrowding that forces inmates to sleep standing up, and "intentional life-threatening harm at the hands of state actors." Instead, Trump has done the next best thing and contracted with El Salvador to accept some of those caught in his crackdown on immigrants.

The Trump administration claims the 238 deportees sent to CECOT in violation of a judge's order were violent gang members who had committed heinous crimes against Americans. However, since the accused were spirited away in the middle of the night without any semblance of due process, evidence was never presented against them. Americans are expected to accept Donald Trump's word.

Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in innocent men being shipped to the notorious prison. After reviewing the flight manifests, 60 Minutes found that 75% of the deportees had no criminal record. Twenty-two percent of the men now languishing in the El Salvadorian prison had only had previous contact with law enforcement for nonviolent offenses like theft, shoplifting, or trespassing.

Unburdened with the need to prove the guilt of the accused, Trump's goons relied on the flimsiest of accusations to justify sending their victims to the gulag in El Salvador. Tattoos were often cited as proof of gang affiliation, even in cases where the artwork depicted support of those with Autism, a European soccer team, or the names of the accused's mother and father.

A social media post where the accused was shown "making a hand gesture with his middle fingers down" was said to prove the need for expulsion. According to his lawyer, this is the same "Devil Horns" gesture popularized in Heavy Metal by Ronnie James Dio. Sign language also uses it to say "I Love You."

Among the apparently innocent people caught up in Trump's deportation scheme is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father raising three children with disabilities. Garcia had a protective order from a judge prohibiting his removal to El Salvador. Citing an "administrative error," the Trump administration deported him anyway. He is now being held in the same prison that houses the same gang members he fled El Salvador to avoid.

Trump's Gestapo arrested Garcia in front of his five-year-old son, who is non-verbal due to autism. According to his wife, the agents told her that if she did not pick up her son in ten minutes, they would turn him over to child protective services. It is heartbreaking to think that any child would be deprived of seeing their father under these horrible, inhumane circumstances, a sadness compounded by the fact that this child lacks the ability to talk about his feelings.

Common decency would dictate that Trump would do everything possible to rectify this mistake. Instead, his administration doubles down, insisting that Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang even though he does not have a criminal record in the United States or El Salvador. His family was, therefore, forced to go to court to win multiple rulings ordering that he be returned. Even with a unanimous decision backing his return by the Supreme Court, Trump refuses to comply.

Thank you for receiving another group of alleged Latin American criminals "and giving them such a wonderful place to live!"

- Trump to the El Salvadoran President

Garcia's case does not seem to be isolated:

• Merwil Gutià à ? ï ? ? ï ? ?rrez is a 19-year-old immigrant who fled Venezuela's dictatorship and has an immigration court case pending. He does not have a criminal record in either the United States or Venezuela and does not have any tattoos. According to a witness to his arrest, one agent told the other that Gutie'rrez was not the person they were looking for. The other member of Trump's Gestapo replied: "Take him anyway."

• Andry Josà à ? ï ? ? ï ? ? Hernà à ? ï ? ? ï ? ?ndez Romero is a 31-year-old makeup artist and hairdresser who fled persecution in Venezuela stemming from his sexual orientation and political views. He crossed the southern border last August to attend a prearranged asylum appointment. According to his friends, family, and lawyers, he has never committed a crime and the only "gang" he ever belonged to was "Los Mini Reyes," his hometown's youth drama group.

• The Trump administration says Jerce Reyes Barrios was "in the United States illegally," but he entered the United States using the CBP One app. The professional soccer player and children's soccer coach did not have a criminal record in Venezuela, but the Department of Homeland Security claimed that his tattoos indicated he had affiliations with a gang. Evidence "about the source of the tattoo and his lack of criminal record" was enough to get him transferred out of maximum security and have a hearing set for April 17. Trump bypassed the courts and shipped him off to an El Salvadorian gulag, where he has not been heard from since. He has been "disappeared."

These actions have been taken in the name of the American people. Instead of accepting the world's tired, poor, and "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," we have become a country that has succumbed to xenophobia and bigotry. Has the "lamp beside the golden door" been permanently extinguished?

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

- Emma Lazarus, November 2, 1883

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, and serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visitwww.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

Authors Website: http://www.changethelausd.com/

Authors Bio:

Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, a member of the LAUSD's CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action endorsed him, and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a "strong supporter of public schools." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

Carl Petersen is a father of five, including two daughters who are on the autism spectrum. His involvement in education issues began when the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) refused to provide services that his daughters' teachers agreed they needed. It was then that his family was forced to sue the District.

At the end of two days of mediation at the District's headquarters, he turned to his wife, Nicole, and said: "somebody has to change this." His wife replied, "What about you?" He accepted the challenge and has run twice for a position on the LAUSD School Board. His platforms included advocacy for special education issues and strong support for public education. In his last election he was endorsed by Americans for Democratic Action Southern California, SFV/NELA Chapter of the National Organization for Women, and Network for Public Education (NPE) Action, a group co-founded by Dr. Diane Ravitch.

When Carl is not working or engaging in activism, he enjoys hanging out at theme parks with his family. He took his oldest daughter to Woodstock '94 when she was two and used to play in several local bands. If he is at his home in Northridge, California, there is a dog at his feet and he is probably writing one of his blogs which have been published in OpEdNews, Medium, Patch, and K-12 News Network.