Wrongly deported Abrego Garcia has tattoo, a Bulls hat. So do I. Am I in MS-13? | Opinion
If you're American or even just in America, regardless of your immigration status, the U.S. Constitution guarantees your right to due process. Period. That's not up for debate.
Like many Americans following the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man our government wrongly deported due to an “administrative error,” I’ve started wondering if I might be a member of a violent transnational Salvadoran gang.
President Donald Trump and officials from his administration, despite acknowledging the “Oops! We accidentally deported you!” part of the story in court documents, continue insisting Abrego Garcia is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. They have not provided what people who watch legal dramas on TV call “evidence” to convincingly support that claim, but they’ll be darned if they won’t keep making it.
Over the weekend, the actual president of the United States of America posted a probably doctored photo of Abrego Garcia’s hand on social media. The Maryland father has actual tattoos on four of his fingers, but in the photo Trump was holding, someone seems to have photoshopped “M,” “S,” “1” and “3” on four of Garcia’s fingers in an utterly unconvincing font.
Trump's tattoo interpretation in Abrego Garcia case seems shady
The real finger tattoos are a marijuana leaf, a smiley face with X’s for eyes, a cross and a skull. If the Trump administration is to be believed, which it most definitely is not, each symbol stands for one of the characters in “MS13.” (I’m not sure why they’d skip the dash in MS-13. After all, there’s a fifth finger to use.) The White House offered no explanation of its apparent tattoo code-breaking.
It would seem the M comes from “marijuana,” the S comes from “smiley face,” the 1 is apparently from the cross or the cross is a second tattoo covering up a 1, and the 3 comes from the skull, which has two eyes and a nose, as in 2+1=3. (It’s not clear why you wouldn’t also count the skull’s mouth. I’m obviously not a professional tattoo interpreter.)
The evidence that Garcia is a dangerous gang member revolves predominantly around the tattoos and the fact that, in 2019, he was seen by police wearing a Chicago Bulls hat. According to the police report, “Officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.”
Uh-oh. I have a tattoo. And I have worn a Chicago Bulls hat.
This is not great news for me. For starters, because I live in Chicago, I too have worn a Chicago Bulls hat.
I’m a middle-age, non-Hispanic suburban man who’s whiter than ceiling primer, so I’m not sure how or when I became active in Hispanic gang culture. But I’ll admit there are periods of my life – possibly during the haze of new-parent sleep deprivation – that are a bit foggy.
My other issue is I have a tattoo that includes a skull. The tattoo has lyrics from a Grateful Dead song – “If I knew the way, I would take you home” – next to the iconic Dead skull symbol, which I only recently learned might represent the “3” in MS-13, assuming you can't count.
I thought I was getting a Grateful Dead tattoo, but now I'm a gang member?
Once I became aware that tattoos are a sure-fire sign you might be a deportable, violent gang member undeserving of due process, I examined mine closely. Sure enough, it’s a bit fishy.
There’s no “S” in the lyrics, but there is an “M.” The skull, according to Trumpian tattoo interpretation, is supposed to stand for a “3,” but maybe in my case it stands for an “S,” as in “Skull.” Having an “M” and an “S” gets me halfway to full MS-13 membership.
The top line of the lyrics in my tattoo – “If I knew the way” – is made up of (and here’s where it gets real scary) 13 letters.
Yikes. I might be a high-ranking Salvadoran gang member.
If Trump has evidence Abrego Garcia is in MS-13, get in court and prove it
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement source did tell the New York Post that Abrego Garcia's tattoos don't prove he's connected to MS-13: “I’ve never heard of those resemblances being made.”
So that means the evidence in my case is every bit as strong as in the Abrego Garcia case.
The government noted that a confidential police informant claimed Garcia is an MS-13 member in the 2019 police report. But The New Republic recently reported, “The Maryland police officer who formally attested to Abrego Garcia’s supposed gang affiliation in 2019 ‒ when he was detained the first time ‒ was subsequently suspended from the force for a serious transgression: giving confidential information about a case to a sex worker.”
So the mere fact that I don’t have a crooked police officer alleging I’m an MS-13 gang member does not make me not an MS-13 gang member … I think?
Supreme Court still seems to think 'due process' is a thing
The good news for me and any other American who has a tattoo and has ever worn a Chicago Bulls hat is that the U.S. Supreme Court still seems to believe in the concept of due process, something Abrego Garcia definitely did not receive before he was shipped off to a Salvadoran prison.
Over the weekend, the nation's highest court put a full stop to the administration’s plans to deport Venezuelans immigrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, following up on a previous ruling that said the deportees must be given notice of removal “within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs."
In other words, the detainees have a right under U.S. law to challenge the legality of their removal. That’s clearly something Abrego Garcia would have done had he been given the chance.
Instead, he’s in El Salvador, and Trump administration officials are here spouting unsupported claims about him, claims that have nothing to do with whether he had a right to due process.
Constitution is quite clear on what's right, and Trump is very wrong
If you’re American or even just in America, regardless of your immigration status, the U.S. Constitution guarantees your right to due process. Period. That’s not up for debate, or at least it shouldn’t be.
In the event the Trump administration tries to deport me for my tattoo and NBA hat preferences, I hope the courts find the evidence of my MS-13 gang affiliation unconvincing, sparing me a trip to Central America.
Is it a ridiculous, hyperbolic thing to consider? Yes. At least I hope so.
But there’s nothing ridiculous or hyperbolic about this: If Trump officials can snatch an immigrant like Abrego Garcia, deny him due process and whisk him away to a foreign prison, their ability to do the same to a U.S. citizen isn’t far behind.
Follow Paste BN columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk