Democrats have a plan for fighting Donald Trump over the most high-profile deportation case in recent history: Don’t make it about immigration.
As the party lines up to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, Democrats are emphasizing due process and the rule of law — side-stepping the thornier intricacies of immigration policy that have served as a drag on their party for years.
It’s part of a calibrated approach that Democrats are betting will keep the debate focused on the Trump administration’s refusal to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States, after a federal judge ordered them to “facilitate” his return and the Supreme Court upheld the decision. In interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic lawmakers and strategists, they said the real-life implications of Trump’s deportation of the native Salvadoran offer an opening to turn what could be an esoteric argument about democratic rights into a vivid cautionary tale.
“You have an individual, a Maryland resident, a union member whose union leadership has been calling for his relief, married to a U.S. citizen here with legal status, who was kidnapped, arrested, wrongly deported to El Salvador,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), part of a group of lawmakers who traveled to the country Monday to advocate for Abrego Garcia. “That is a terrifying prospect if it is allowed to be continued and let it go, because it opens the door for this to happen again. It emboldens the Trump administration to continue to disappear people.”
“I think the most important part of this story is the lack of due process,” she said in an interview.
Even Abrego Garcia’s wife has echoed the emphasis on due process, saying in a statement, “I’m fighting for Kilmar and for all the other Kilmars who have been unjustly deported without due process.”
But Democrats must walk a fine line in defending Abrego Garcia, several strategists warned, as the Trump White House has worked to portray Abrego Garcia as a violent member of the MS-13 gang and an “apparent woman beater.” They’ve taunted the lawmakers who have taken up Abrego Garcia’s cause.
Abrego Garcia’s family has denied that he is a gang member and a U.S. District Court judge ordering his return said in her ruling there is no evidence to make that claim.
“We have to be careful to not get sucked into an argument where Republicans can say we care more about undocumented immigrants than American citizens … so that’s why [Democrats] keep talking about due process,” said Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist. “We need to focus on how there needs to be a process to make sure that innocent people and citizens don’t get caught up in this, and that’s how we need to be talking about this.”
Abrego Garcia’s case has quickly become a symbol of Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda. The president has sent hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, and has argued that the high-profile deportees — including Abrego Garcia — are hardened criminals, as his aides aggressively build a case alleging the Salvadoran man has a criminal past.
But Abrego Garcia has never been charged with any crimes, and federal judges have slammed the Trump administration’s conduct in the case, while describing the claims about him as extraordinarily “flimsy.” And even if he were the dangerous criminal the White House has portrayed, his deportation to El Salvador still would have been illegal due to a 2019 court order saying he could stay in Maryland to avoid gang persecution back in his home country — a message Democrats are trying to drive home.
“Due process is the language of a constitutional democracy, and so we have to speak that language so people can understand other people’s situations,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in an interview. “And I do believe that if we don’t stand up for the due process rights of non-citizens, they will quickly trample the due process rights of citizens.”
For years, Trump has deployed immigration and border safety as a cudgel against Democrats. President Joe Biden’s first three years in the White House were plagued by high border crossings, with his aides fearful of discussing the politically challenging issue. The Biden campaign and Democrats didn’t coalesce around a stronger immigration message until June, just months before the election — a move many strategists say came too late.
As of late March, about half of voters said they supported Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and further restrict immigration, according to a Associated Press-NORC poll.
But when the surveys dig deeper — providing respondents with detail about Trump’s policies and who the president is targeting — these numbers shift, according to polling Democrats are reviewing, particularly when voters are asked about the Trump administration pushing legal boundaries. A large majority of voters said they believe immigrants should have basic legal rights, according to a preview of a new memo from the progressive Research Collaborative and ASO Communications, first shared with POLITICO, compiling recent polling on the issue.
The polling found most voters believe the government should only be allowed to deport undocumented immigrants if it has provided evidence and a hearing, and 60 percent believe the government must provide the public with evidence justifying an immigrant’s deportation to a country they are not from before their removal. Voters also believe the administration should obey court orders when deporting immigrants.
“For I can’t count how long, Democrats were counseled to not talk about abortion,” said Anat Shenker-Osorio, a political messaging researcher and campaign consultant. “To offer SAT-style syllogism: Dobbs is to abortion as these abductions are to immigration.”
It’s why some Democrats are already taking up the case, including Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador last week and met with Abrego Garcia there. Several House members, including Ansari, who represent districts with sizable Latino populations, traveled to El Salvador Sunday.
“Democrats are hyper-cautious about this, and they often want a lot of data before they finally start talking about it,” said Colin Rogero, a Democratic consultant who cut the Spanish-language ads for the Biden and Kamala Harris’ presidential campaigns. “But you’re seeing members right now who are getting out in front of this, who are being aggressive, and I think you’ll see other Democrats get on board as they see it’s working.”
But they’re also betting that the invocation of due process and the sometimes-wonky legal fight will resonate with the broader American public. They argue it will allow them to place the debate around the case on their own terms after Republicans made immigration and the border a central part of their argument to voters in 2024, exploiting divides in the party on border enforcement.
“It’s a bigger conversation about rule of law and what kind of country we are,” said Evan Roth Smith, a lead pollster for Democratic-aligned Blueprint. “And it takes the Republicans out of their more comfortable immigration territory, which is, are we a country with a border or not? Which is a case they successfully made to voters.”
The post Dems see a winning issue in case of man mistakenly deported to El Salvador appeared first on Politico.
