You might be right about the authoritarian mindset, but I wonder if it's even that deliberate. Many people simply don't have the framework to think about judicial authority, congressional laws, treaty obligations, or constitutional protections - especially when they're getting their news from headlines and soundbites. Let me simplify this with the actual facts: According to the NYT, Mr. Abrego Garcia (a Salvadoran married to a U.S. citizen) has said he won't fight deportation if he's sent to Costa Rica. Costa Rica has offered him legal residency and guaranteed he won't be sent back to El Salvador. But the Trump administration has refused to send him there. When a judge asked why, they wouldn't clarify. Think about that for a moment. If the goal is simply to deport someone quickly and efficiently, why refuse the easy option? Why spend more time and taxpayer money fighting this in court? I can think of a few possibilities: It's punitive and cruelty for its own sake. It's political theater, making deportations look difficult on purpose to justify claims that "the system is broken". Or there's some other strategic reason... What I can't see is how this serves any legitimate immigration enforcement goal. If this were really about removing illegal immigrants efficiently, he'd already be in Costa Rica.
This means that Trump's authority is greater than all of those other authorities because his is the only one that is enforced. He must be king, for real, or something.
They want to play theatre; they want to ship him to some 3rd world country to show how tough they are
