Trump’s Secretary-of-Everything/Shadow President Stephen Miller has a new partner in his mission to mass purge America of immigrants: Marco Rubio, a son of immigrants and a one-time champion of immigration reform (key word: one-time).
A new investigative report from The Washington Post details the Trump administration’s rushed, lawless effort to kidnap Venezuelan immigrants – including some who were in the U.S. legally, others with open asylum cases, and most with no verified criminal record at all – to a Salvadoran mega-prison. And, as the explosive report details, Rubio has been central to this plot to ignore due process rights and send these dads and contributors to a foreign gulag. Many of these families say they’ve had no contact with their loved ones since – or even know if these men are still alive.
“The message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to El Salvador’s Foreign Ministry outlined an audacious plan: The United States would be sending as many as 500 Venezuelan gang members to the Central American nation, and it planned to do so within 24 hours,” the report said. “A Washington Post investigation shows how officials raced to execute the plan, rounding up some of the men at their homes the same day Rubio’s message went out.”
But as we know now, the Trump administration’s claim that it was rounding up so-called “gang members” is complete horse pucky. Publicly, Trump officials like to malign all immigrants as “criminals.” But in a court of law and under penalty of perjury, “the government has admitted that many do not have criminal records,” as The Post reported. As many as 90% of the men purged to El Salvator’s notorious CECOT facility have no criminal record at all, according to one report from Bloomberg.
Among the men purged was Roger Eduardo Molina, who had been approved for refugee status and underwent months of vetting, The Post reports. At least four other men had relief through the Temporary Protected Status program, which means they should have had protection from deportation. It throws cold water on Rubio’s claim that the Venezuelan men were being shipped off to CECOT because they were so dangerous their home country wouldn’t accept them.
I'd say that it's been clear since at least 2015, but yet again, the article makes it quite apparent that none of this is really about "legal" v "illegal" immigration.www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/…
— Adam Sawyer (@adamjst.bsky.social) 2025-05-04T14:52:06.555Z
“Rubio has said that the U.S. had to send the Venezuelans to El Salvador that day because their own country would not take back alleged gang members,” the report said. “But records reviewed by The Post show that two deportation flights to Venezuela were also scheduled to leave that weekend carrying dozens of alleged criminals, including at least one man Rubio has publicly accused of gang membership.”
Another key word: alleged. In the case of asylum-seeker Andry Hernandez Romero, Rubio and Miller’s justification for sending him to a foreign gulag is an innocuous set of tattoos. For other immigrants targeted by the administration, simply having a different point of view has been the justification for their detention, as is the case for Columbia University Palestinian activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, who missed the birth of his first child because he’s in ICE detention.
Details on Khalil and the Jena prison he is confined in:- saw child for the first time via 9 photos printed at Walmart- lost 15-20 lbs b/c of vile food- dorms sleep 70 to room in 35 bunks- lights on 24/7- dorms are kept frigid- the facility was fixed up in advance of congressional visit
— Nathan Kalman-Lamb (@nkalamb.bsky.social) 2025-05-02T23:16:53.233Z
What a fall from grace for Rubio, who frequently touted the story of his Cuban exile parents and as a member of the Senate’s 2013 Gang of Eight co-authored a pathway to citizenship for millions of long-settled immigrant contributors. In fact, as Rubio was pushing for a pathway to citizenship in Congress, Miller, then an aide to then-Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, was actively working to kill it. Miller’s meddling worked, with the House refusing to take up the legislation, leaving millions vulnerable. Leaked emails then revealed that Miller sought to use the immigration issue to try to sink Rubio’s 2016 run, by planting negative stories in extreme outlets like Breitbart.
Miller probably still doesn’t like Rubio – recall that he’s despised Latinos for decades – but the difference now is that Rubio is useful to his mass deportation agenda. “Marco and Stephen have worked really closely on immigration and it might be a perfect match,” a White House source claimed to Axios. Or maybe “Little Marco” simply just does as he’s told. Look at last month’s White House horror show, where Rubio sank deeper and deeper into an Oval Office couch as Miller physically towered over him and asserted his authority over him and the rest of Trump’s cabinet. When Miller says “jump,” Rubio asks “to which gulag?”
This is truly a frightening prospect for all Americans when combined with the recent false claim from Miller (who is not a lawyer) that due process is only for some, and Trump’s claims that he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the U.S. Constitution he swore to preserve, protect, and defend:
Stephen Miller is lying through his teeth. The Supreme Court has emphasized for generations that EVERY person gets due process.Here's none other than Antonin Scalia in 1993: "It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings."
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T18:24:05.178Z
WELKER: Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree?TRUMP: I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.WELKER: Don't you need to uphold the Constitution?TRUMP: I don't know
Last month’s Oval Office horror show was a five-alarm fire for all individuals living in America who cherish the rule of law and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. During the White House meeting between Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, the U.S. president casually informed his fellow authoritarian that he’ll seek to purge “home growns” – translation: U.S. citizens – to the mega-prison where Hernandez Romero and many other immigrants without criminal records are being unjustly detained.
Let’s not overlook that the Trump administration’s justification for the invocation of 1798 wartime law is a blatant lie. Last week, a Trump-appointed judge in Texas dismissed their bogus “invasion” claim: “The Proclamation makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation,” [US District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez] wrote. “Thus, the Proclamation’s language cannot be read as describing conduct that falls within the meaning of ‘invasion’ for purposes of the [1798 wartime law]..”
Oh, and the nation’s intelligence community, which knows what the real threats are, also dismissed the supposed threat of an invasion by Tren de Aragua and Venezuela:
A newly declassified memo released on Monday confirms that U.S. intelligence agencies rejected a key claim President Trump put forth to justify invoking a wartime statute to summarily deport Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.
If it can happen to one of us – such as Abrego García and Hernandez Romero – it can happen to all of us. And Marco Rubio is a key player in it. If only he’d remember the words of his late mother. We certainly do. “Tony, some loving advice from the person who cares for you most in the world,” she said in a voice mail he once played for reporters. “Don’t mess with the immigrants, my son. Please, don’t mess with them … They’re human beings just like us, and they came for the same reasons we came. To work. To improve their lives. So please, don’t mess with them.”
