Thread by @GregTSargent

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has been released, have been informed by ICE that he could now be subject to deportation to Uganda, and he's been told to report to ICE next week, a source confirms to me.

A few points about this, b/c there will be a lot of BS about it. 1/

What this confirms is how deeply corrupt and indefensible Trump and Stephen Miller's handling of this has been all throughout.

Those of us commenting on this have argued all along that Trump *always* had the option of bringing him back and proceeding through lawful channels. 2/

In other words, after illegally renditioning Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran gulag, Trump could *at any point* have brought him back and moved to deport him to a third country or contested his "withholding of removal" status.

We argued for this for months. 3/

Trump/Miller left him in El Salvador for months despite having the option of removing him another way.

That was illegal. It defied the Supreme Court. And it was all b/c Trump/Miller calculated that defying the law would thrill MAGA and following the law would deflate it. 4/

Here is how JD Vance described all this to @DouthatNYT back in May. The deception and degenerate moral reasoning on display is extraordinary, now that we're seeing Trump/Miller functionally *admit* that they had the option all along of simply moving to deport him another way. 5/

@DouthatNYT Everything JD said was nonsense. They never had MS-13 evidence. The idea that his fate was up to Bukele was a lie. And all this "valid deportation order" idea really meant is that they *could* have returned him at any time and attempted removal via lawful channels, but didn't. 6/

@DouthatNYT Now they're doing the very thing they always could have done rather than leave him in El Salvador: Attempt removal to a third country. This makes the ongoing prosecution of him now for trafficking look pretty suspect: Maybe they don't actually think that they can prove guilt? 7?

@DouthatNYT The full weight of the Trump/WH legal/propaganda machine has been bearing down on this one day laborer and his family for months, all b/c Trump/Miller decided defying the law would thrill MAGA.

No one should accept how the US gov't has treated this man. An absolute disgrace. 8/8

@DouthatNYT Coda: Note JD piously telling @DouthatNYT he hoped to obey "Christian principles."

In fact, JD dissembled about his legal status, baselessly smeared him as violent, and lied nonstop to obscure that WH had the option of following the law all throughout.

This is now undeniable.