Best catch there is

Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22 focused on the absurdities of WWII in Italy and I think I have read it at least four times (and enjoyed the movie and the TV series). It's hilarious but that is not what sticks with me; it's the darkness that underlies the entire story.

In the novel, the "catch" is that a pilot cannot be relieved of flying more combat missions by claiming insanity, since the mere act of claiming insanity to avoid the dangers of flying those missions proves that the pilot is sane.

You don't need to have read the novel to have heard about Catch-22, of course, since the phrase has been part of our lexicon for the past 60 years. Briefly, a catch-22 is a situation where people are trapped in a loop, so to speak, because of a rule or circumstance that denies them a way out.

Kilmar Ábrego García is living a current version of Catch-22 after being spirited away to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to an administrative error. He entered the country illegally as a 16-year-old fleeing from the threat of violence in his home country. He became a transportation union apprentice, married an American, and they have three children, all with disabilities. 

Life has not been easy for the guy. 

He has been swept up in the Trump administration overreach on immigration ("overreach" is applicable to nearly everything the Current Occupant, a convicted felon, does). He has never been arrested or convicted of a crime. The government admits it was all a mistake.

The Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Mr. Garcia needs to be returned to the United States, but the Trump administration claims that since the man is in the custody of El Salvador, the U.S. has no power to force his return. The dictator of El Salvador claims he can't return Garcia because that would be like smuggling a terrorist into the country.

The U.S. is paying El Salvador $6 million to house about 200 supposed gang members in their most secure and dangerous prison.

Yesterday, a U.S. Senator was able to meet with Garcia briefly in El Salvador, and the good news is that he appeared unharmed, at least physically. 

But Garcia was then returned to the lock up. He shouldn't be there, but the catch is that since he is there, no one can help him. 

Catch-22... best catch there is, as Major Major would remind us.

Of course, Trump and his goons are also brazenly defying clear court decisions in this case... and so many others. Native-born citizen will be next. After all, once someone the government wants gone is out of the country, nothing can be done. 

Yes, it was in "error," but what's the most powerful country on earth to do?