As a high school student, I drafted my thesis required for graduation on the 1982 Falklands Islands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom. It analyzed issues involving self-determination, self-defense, public international law, and international politics, and instilled in me due respect for international norms of behavior. As life would have it, my children’s maternal grandparents ended up being from Buenos Aires, Argentina, having emigrated in 1977 to the US during Argentina’s period of state terrorism under the fascist military junta. Their experience of incipient authoritarianism in that country remains real and relevant in 2025 America.
I have participated in legal fora and analyses of international relations sponsored by and in collaboration with Argentine institutions of higher learning. My experience also extends to having taught in El Salvador. Judges and government lawyers were my students of trial advocacy techniques used in the United States which are based on principles of transparency and fair procedures with proper respect for due process. And I have worked every day with a retired Venezuelan policeman turned lawyer for nearly two decades fighting to preserve the rights and interests of our clients, most of whom are from elsewhere. And I have provided what moral support I can to the cause of the restoration of the Rule of Law in Venezuela and have flown their flag upside down on my house as a sign of solidarity since 2017. For this constellation of reasons, the Venezuelan deportation cases are near and very dear to my personal and professional experiences and perhaps infuses my perspective with knowledge and information that may be of interest to the reader.
During Argentina’s “Dirty War”, people would “disappear,” in plain sight and in public view, snatched off the streets and whisked away in unidentified cars (the infamous “Ford Falcons,” always sporting their dark green coat of paint and tinted windows) operated by teams of unidentified “police,” to places unknown, with no due process – or any process at all. That was the fascist military junta of Jorge Rafael Videla, Leopoldo Galtieri, and the gang, that only ended after the ill-advised invasion of and subsequent expulsion from the Islas Malvinas at the cost of the lives of 649 Argentines, 255 British, and 3 Falkland Islanders. The junta dubbed left-wing activists “terrorists” and kidnapped and killed an estimated 30,000 people. Some were tortured to death, some shot, and some drugged, helicoptered out to “international waters” beyond the jurisdiction of the courts, and flung out the open door from altitude to the sea below. Those “disappeared” gave birth to the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.
Later, it resulted in prosecutions in the Trial of the Juntas in 1985 for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity during the Dirty War, including the widespread abduction, torture, and murder of activists and political opponents along with their families at secret concentration camps. It was the first major trial held for war crimes since the Nüremberg Trials.
Doubters there are, no doubt, who still cling naively to the notion that “it can’t happen here.” My friends, as shocking as it sounds, it already has. And that is where we are now, today —- in the United States of America. As Judge Wilkinson stated, on March 15, 2025, with no due process, Trump used the power of government “to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.” Trump continues to argue in various courts that he has the legal authority to continue to engage in such acts. Indeed, he attempted to continue to engage in such acts again on April 16, 17, and 18, 2025, until the Supreme Court stepped in and stopped him at 1:00 a.m. on April 19, 2025. In Kilmar Abrego García’s case, Trump violated the Code of Federal Regulations which requires that the government prove “by a preponderance of evidence” that the alien is no longer entitled to a withholding of removal. It then “mistakenly” sent him to the one country the Judge’s withholding order prohibited Trump from sending him to: El Salvador. Trump continues to refuse to comply with the Supreme Court’s unanimous 9-0 April 10, 2025 Order “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Taken together, the Venezuelan deportation cases remind us that no due process means outside the law. Just as there was no due process in Argentina’s Dirty War, Trump is engaging in and arguing for no due process in the United States of America. Trump’s Dirty War is underway.