Wednesday’s PBS News Hour fretted over the “wrongful deportation” of the media’s favorite Maryland resident, illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, back to El Salvador, and suggested that it's unconstitutional not to give every illegal immigrant a trial before deportation.
Co-anchor Geoff Bennett: Last night, a federal judge in Maryland said the Trump administration is trying to obstruct the truth about the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. The judge added, the administration's refusal to answer questions about its assertion that Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, nor provide details about its contract with the Salvadoran government -- quote -- "reflects a willful and bad-faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations."
Co-anchor Amna Nawaz: Addressing the case this week, President Trump repeatedly said he wants to bypass due process required by the Constitution in order to fulfill his migrant crackdown.
The judge is Obama-appointed Paula Xinis. PBS ran a clip of what Trump actually said:
Donald Trump: We have thousands of people that are ready to go out. And you can't have a trial for all of these people. They emptied out insane asylums into our country. We're getting them out. And a judge can't say, no, you have to have a trial. But let's -- the trial is going to take two years.
Is PBS being sloppy or did they truly suggest every illegal immigrant (out of the millions in America now) really require a trial before being deported? Talk about gumming up the deportation works.
Nawaz: So the president has said he wants to get rid of the legally required due process here for the immigrants he wants to deport. All of that is despite a Supreme Court ruling that blocks more deportations under that Alien Enemies Wartime Act. So what are lawyers telling you right now about their ability to get due process for their clients?
Laura Barron-Lopez: Multiple lawyers that I have talked to said that it's been increasingly difficult to represent their clients that are being targeted for deportation because the Trump administration is moving these migrants from jurisdiction to jurisdiction….
That story led straight into an interview with liberal Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) under the online headline, “‘Dignity is being compromised’: Democratic lawmakers visit students arrested by ICE.” (Speaking of dignity being compromised, Abrego Garcia’s “home state” Democratic senator Sen. Chris Van Hollen, actually visited Abrego Garcia in prison in El Salvador.)
Geoff Bennett: Meantime, a group of Democratic members of Congress traveled to Louisiana yesterday to visit foreign students Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk in a pair of federal detention facilities as both face potential removal from the U.S. Video captured agents last month apprehending Ozturk, a Turkish national with a valid F-1 student visa near her home outside Boston. Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student who was also arrested by ICE officials. The Trump administration maintains they're each a threat to national security for their activism against the Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey was part of that visit and joins us now….
Yet they only discussed the Ozturk case, which is a more sympathetic one than Khalil’s active pro-Hamas activities at Columbia University.
Sen. Edward Markey: Well, the only public statement which has been made is that she wrote an op-ed in the Tufts University undergraduate newspaper about her views on a resolution that had passed in the Tufts government, undergraduate government. So that's the accusation against her, that she exercised her free speech to be able to have an opinion, an action that was taken by the student government at Tufts University….
Bennett set up Markey with a question using PBS’s familiar template “What do you say to that?” or “What do you make of that?” for the liberal guest to take an easy swing at.
Bennett: You know, there are those who maintain that no one is entitled to a student visa, it's a privilege granted by the U.S. government, and the federal government should reserve the right and the authority to revoke or deny that privilege as it deems necessary. What do you say to that argument?
That was Markey’s cue for his impassioned spiel, which concluded with his “dignity” remarks.
These two segments were brought to you in part by BDO.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS News Hour
4/24/25
7:20:53 p.m.
Geoff Bennett: Last night, a federal judge in Maryland said the Trump administration is trying to obstruct the truth about the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. The judge added, the administration's refusal to answer questions about its assertion that Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, nor provide details about its contract with the Salvadoran government — quote — "reflects a willful and bad-faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations."
Amna Nawaz: Addressing the case this week, President Trump repeatedly said he wants to bypass due process required by the Constitution in order to fulfill his migrant crackdown.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: We have thousands of people that are ready to go out. And you can't have a trial for all of these people. They emptied out insane asylums into our country. We're getting them out. And a judge can't say, no, you have to have a trial. But let's — the trial is going to take two years.
Amna Nawaz: Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, joins us now for more.
So, Laura, the judge has a very strong word there for the Trump administration, bad-faith refusal to comply. Where do things stand now?
Laura Barron-Lopez: So Judge Xinis has essentially given the Trump administration until this evening to — quote — "respond to all outstanding discovery requests" and to essentially provide the factual basis for their assertion that Garcia is an MS-13 gang member.
And, so far, there have been a number of depositions of Trump administration officials. But we should note, Amna, that now, over the last 24 hours, there have been a number of sealed filings in the case, including one from the Trump administration seeking a seven-day stay of Judge Xinis' discovery and daily status reports.
And so we expect to hear from Judge Xinis soon, but we don't know how she's going to rule on that.
Amna Nawaz: So the president has said he wants to get rid of the legally required due process here for the immigrants he wants to deport. All of that is despite a Supreme Court ruling that blocks more deportations under that Alien Enemies wartime act.
So what are lawyers telling you right now about their ability to get due process for their clients?
Laura Barron-Lopez: Multiple lawyers that I have talked to said that it's been increasingly difficult to represent their clients that are being targeted for deportation because the Trump administration is moving these migrants from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
And these lawyers have also had limited access to their clients to get interviews and information from them. I spoke to Holly Cooper. She's the co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic at U.C. Davis. And she warned that the administration's actions are weakening due process rights.
Holly Cooper, Co-Director, Immigration Law Clinic, U.C. Davis: Without these structures, these pillars of due process, we are going to end up erroneously deporting a lot of individuals into very extreme conditions like what we're seeing in CECOT in El Salvador.
So this is really even like — it wouldn't be in exaggeration to say this is a life-or-death situation to provide fair procedures for our immigrants and for people who aren't even immigrants who are citizens. Those traditional procedural protections that have demarcated us as a democracy are completely eroding before our eyes.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Holly Cooper said that she and other immigration lawyers are also concerned about the escalation, potential escalation, of racial profiling.
And while there's no requirement for U.S. citizens to carry I.D.s, she said that she may start advising U.S. citizens to carry some form of identification.
Amna Nawaz: And you have been reporting on the case of one U.S. citizen, right, from Georgia who was arrested and detained. What happened there?
Laura Barron-Lopez: That's right. The U.S. citizen is Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, and he was detained by ICE for nearly 48 hours in Florida. He was arrested during a traffic stop under a state law that makes it illegal for undocumented immigrants to cross into — that are over the age of 18 to cross into Florida.
And, now, the key thing here was that law was suspended by a judge when Carlos Gomez was arrested. Now, we asked the Homeland Security Department about this.
A senior DHS official said in a statement to "News Hour" that: "After a stop by a Florida highway patrol trooper, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S. was detained after he said that he was in the U.S. illegally. Immediately after learning the individual was a United States citizen, he was released.'
Now, my producer Shrai Popat and I spoke to Juan and his mother, and Juan disputes Homeland Security's claim, and he said that he told Highway Patrol that he was a United States citizen and shared his story with us.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, Detained U.S. Citizen (through interpreter):
As soon as I arrived at the detention center, they asked me, if I am a U.S. citizen, why do I not speak English? They were just laughing in my face.
After that, they took photos of me and they made me sign a lot of papers, and I didn't know what I was signing. I immediately got desperate because I didn't want to be in there and I just felt hopeless.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Juan said that he presented his Social Security card to officials, and that they dismissed it. And that is a proper form of I.D., Amna.
And Juan and his mother described the entire experience as traumatic and Juan said that he's afraid it could happen again.
Now, Juan Lopez-Gomez's lawyer said that they are very likely to sue the state of Florida.
Amna Nawaz: And, as you report this out, you found this wasn't an isolated incident. Is that right? There's another U.S. citizen's case you're following?
Laura Barron-Lopez: There is. Jose Hermosillo, he's 19. He was arrested in Tucson, Arizona, where he was detained for nearly 10 days. An ICE agent said that Hermosillo told them that he was — quote — "a citizen of Mexico."
Now, a senior DHS official told us in a statement that standard procedures were followed for an individual who self-identifies as a — quote — "illegal alien." They said that agents were not aware of a learning disability that Hermosillo has.
Now, we were not able to reach Hermosillo, but in interviews with other reporters, he has said that he made clear that he was a United States citizen, Amna. And the attorney general for Arizona says that they are looking into this incident
Amna Nawaz: All right, Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you for your reporting.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Thank you.
Geoff Bennett: Meantime, a group of Democratic members of Congress traveled to Louisiana yesterday to visit foreign students Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk in a pair of federal detention facilities as both face potential removal from the U.S.
Video captured agents last month apprehending Ozturk, a Turkish national with a valid F-1 student visa near her home outside Boston. Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student who was also arrested by ICE officials. The Trump administration maintains they're each a threat to national security for their activism against the Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza.
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey was part of that visit and joins us now.
Thanks for being with us, sir.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA): Great to be with you.
Geoff Bennett: Trump officials say Rumeysa Ozturk's visa was revoked because she allegedly engaged in activities supporting Hamas. She's a Ph.D. student at a university in your state. What's your understanding of why she was detained and targeted for deportation?
Sen. Edward Markey: Well, the only public statement which has been made is that she wrote an op-ed in the Tufts University undergraduate newspaper about her views on a resolution that had passed in the Tufts government, undergraduate government.
So that's the accusation against her, that she exercised her free speech to be able to have an opinion an action that was taken by the student government at Tufts University. That's protected under the First Amendment of the United States, freedom of speech, freedom of the press.
And, beyond that, there have been no accusations. There's been no evidence of a crime. They haven't even alleged a crime, and yet they whisked her off of the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, where Tufts University is located, moved her to Vermont and then to Atlanta, and then to a remote part of Louisiana, where Congressman Jim McGovern and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and I visited her yesterday.
And, thus far, they are presented, from the government's perspective, no evidence that in any way could be constituted as a crime, and that is a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States. That is the protection under due process to have the evidence presented against you. And they have not done that either.
For four weeks, she's been in prison, no charge of a crime, no evidence presented against her, and yet she sits there in prison wearing an orange jumpsuit without any accusation that has been publicly made by the Trump administration.
Geoff Bennett: What's your understanding of the Trump administration's motivation in moving her to that facility in Louisiana, despite a court order maintaining that she would remain in Massachusetts?
And, beyond that, under what conditions is she being held right now?
Sen. Edward Markey: Well, she was in Vermont when she was moved.
And obviously the Trump administration is forum shopping. They're trying to find the most conservative circuit code of appeals in the United States, which is the Fifth Circuit, which is where Louisiana is located. And so to the extent to which they have moved Rumeysa 1,500 miles away from Somerville, and then 100 miles further out from the New Orleans Airport, they seek to distance her from her family, from her friends, from her attorneys, from any support system that could be provided to her.
And it's all a part of a pattern, which, by the way, is the same thing that they did to Mahmoud Khalil, who is also in prison down in Louisiana in one of these facilities, and we visited him as well.
And I would say that she obviously had a terrifying experience. Where six undercover law enforcement officers swept her up and into a vehicle, put handcuffs on her, and then, as she was being transported, ultimately she was in chains as she was arriving in Louisiana. No charges made against her, despite all of that.
And despite her asthma attacks that keep recurring in prison, despite the less-than-ideal conditions in these prisons, the lack of easily accessible medical care or nutrition, or even extra blankets at night if it's too cold, she still has an indomitable spirit, an indomitable spirit. And it was just a privilege to be able to meet with her.
Geoff Bennett: You know, there are those who maintain that no one is entitled to a student visa, it's a privilege granted by the U.S. government, and the federal government should reserve the right and the authority to revoke or deny that privilege as it deems necessary. What do you say to that argument?
Sen. Edward Markey: Well, what I say is that we're the United States of America, and she's entitled to due process, and she is entitled to have the evidence presented against her, and it has not happened yet.
There's no provision that says that Marco Rubio, as the secretary of state, can just designate someone like Rumeysa and all of a sudden she can be whisked to a prison, as though we're in Russia or Belarus, with no charges made against her. No, we're better than that.
And that's why, 250 years ago in Massachusetts, we began the American Revolution to create our Constitution which would provide protections, freedom of speech and protections under the due process Fifth Amendment clauses that have guaranteed that our nation is one of laws, and not of men. And that man cannot be Marco Rubio or Donald Trump. It must be the laws that are enforced.
And, right now, this Trump administration is in complete and total disregard for those laws. And the humanitarian consequences for Rumeysa and thousands of others, the dignity which is being compromised, is absolutely unacceptable in the United States in 2025.
Geoff Bennett: Senator Ed Markey, thank you for your time this evening. We appreciate it.
Sen. Edward Markey: Great to be with you. Thank you.
