Appearing on MSNBC’s The Weekend on Saturday, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) agreed with host Symone Sanders-Townsend’s assertion that if the Trump administration decides it can deport people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia without consequence, any people of color are next in line.
Referencing the Legal Defense Fund’s Janai Nelson’s writing for The Nation, Sanders-Townsend explained how democracies die “brick by brick” and that lawless actions by the Trump administration, such as deporting legal residents like Abrego Garcia to overseas maximum security prisons, are “canaries in the coal mine” signaling the potential fall of American democracy.
She continued, arguing that cases like Abrego Garcia and that of Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist who was accused of being a gang member and sent to CECOT, are important because “if they can do it to them, if they can snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us.”
She continued, “To be clear, it’s going to be people of color and vulnerable communities that are next in line.” Ivey agreed, telling Sanders-Townsend, “I think that’s right, and that’s certainly part of why the African American community is so strongly behind supporting Kilmar. Because, as you said, if they’re going to whisk them away, what are they going to do with us?”
Abrego Garcia is a resident of Maryland’s 4th congressional district, the district Ivey represents. Following Senator Chris Van Hollen’s successful meeting with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador earlier this week, Ivey took to X to share his plans to visit the country next month and also meet with Abrego Garcia, so he could ensure his wellbeing and report back to his family.
In a recent interview with WAMU, Ivey condemned the Trump administration’s extrajudicial deportations, telling the station, “If the court makes an evaluation, the deportation is appropriate, that’s one thing. But just grabbing people up and whisking them out of the country, that’s not the American way.”
