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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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Giving a paramilitary organization the power to make people disappear without due process

These histrionics are embarrassing.

A more neutral and truthful way to describe was ICE does is "arrest and deport illegal immigrants in accordance with existing law." They're not a paramilitary organization, they don't "disappear" people, and deportees get all the due process they are afforded by US law.

There have been many cases of illegal immigrants deported without a hearing to CECOT. They were not just deported to El Salvador and then once out of U.S. jurisdiction, imprisoned by the El Salvador government. The U.S. government arranged for them to be imprisoned there, in many cases without them even being citizens or residents of El Salvador.

It's hard to see how that does not violate the due process they are afforded by U.S. law. I don't think U.S. law allows people to be imprisoned without being charged and to be sentenced without

There have also been cases of legal immigrants held in detention camps for weeks without charge, without being given the opportunity to contact anyone, and without their families being told what happened to them. This has happened to tourists from Western countries.

This is a violation of habeas corpus and it violates the 14th amendment's due process clause.

They sometimes deport legal immigrants not in accordance with the law though.

Do they? How often? Based on what I see, it happens virtually never and leftists are just straight up lying about it for dramatic effect.

I don't know how often. But I've read about it a few times in the news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/supreme-court-kilmar-abrego-garcia-1.7507521

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuelan-brother-deported-el-salvador-family-looking-rcna202279

There are more, but these are the two I remember best.

Neither of the cases you posted involved legal immigrants.

The first one had a court order preventing his deportation. The second one was invited into the country to attend an immigration hearing.

Neither was a legal immigrant.

If they are in the country legally, they're legal immigrants. What are you talking about?

A court order to prevent deportation does not mean that you are in the country legally. When Kilmar Abrego Garcia entered the country in 2012, he did so illegally. The court order to return him to the US was only over due process concerns. It does not mean that some judge magically granted him citizenship and he is now in the country legally.

I'm not sure by what stretch of the imagination you assert that Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel was "invited into the country" for an immigration hearing. What he actually did was use the CBP One app to schedule an appointment at a port of entry about an asylum claim. Presumably he made some plausible claim to asylum that was later found to be false, because DHS asserts that he entered the country illegally.

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Sure, I'll grant the premise. In that case you might say "deporting people in contravention of the law." They still aren't "disappearing" people.

If they arrest someone and don't bring them before a judge upon request as they are legally required to do and don't allow them to contact anyone on the outside and don't tell their family members where they are when asked, that is disappearing people, even if they eventually show up again.