Maryland, May 21—Members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined rallies outside a courthouse in Greenbelt, calling for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia–who the bosses deported based on racist lies to the hellish CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) prison in El Salvador, where he remains as of this writing. CHALLENGE issues and bilingual flyers were on hand, inviting protestors to May Day. While the outrage over Garcia’s treatment is needed, PLP says that the ruling class wasn’t making a “mistake” in deporting him – such repressive actions are built into the capitalist system. The collective working class must come together to smash all borders worldwide and fight for communism!
Workers fight back
Workers from around the region protested Abrego-Garcia’s deportation. Signs attacked the lack of “Due Process,” executive disregard for the judiciary, and lamented the failure of “the rule of law.” Familiar chants included “No HATE, No FEAR, Immigrants are Welcome Here” and calls for justice. A “Rapid Response Choir” from the local Mennonite Church sang. The outpouring of solidarity was a great step forward, but liberal slogans aren’t enough. Battle lines, marked in the dirt years ago by “Deporter-in-Chief” Obama, are being crossed daily as attacks on the working class escalate within the U.S. All immigrants are targets, including students on visas and with green cards! U.S. citizens who oppose the ruling class’s policies are next in line.
Borders only benefit bosses
International borders are creations of capitalism. Borders were established as nation-states consolidated power and sought to divide workers from each other and terrorize those who migrate. They allow bosses to more easily exploit certain workers, such as those escaping capitalist created civil, proxy and gang wars in their home countries, paying them poverty wages for work, which drives down wages for all workers. In times of rising inter imperialist rivalry with China and Russia, workers are being forced to cross borders across the globe for survival, while the ruling class uses them as pawns for profit, allowing and restricting access based on their fascist needs.
All politicians support these borders. Senator Van Hollen (D-Md) made a performative trip to El Salvador to make the case in favor of Abrego-Garcia’s return, but said nothing about the many other deportees savaged by the U.S. capitalist state and imprisoned in CECOT. At the same time, Trump and Bukele (President of El Salvador) doubled down on lying about Abrego-Garcia’s character to build racist sentiment against immigrants among U.S. workers.
Gang lists are racist tools of repression
The lying cop who said Garcia was a gang member is on the Maryland State Attorney’s list of cops who are disqualified from testifying in court hearings because of their history of false testimony. The “gang file” that was kept on students and residents of Prince George’s County was filled with young Latin workers deemed “suspicious” (without evidence) by any random cop. Destroying that file was a focus of protests by PLP and CASA since it had led to falsely-based deportations at that time.
Contrary to most U.S. liberal analysis, Abrego-Garcia’s deportation and subsequent detention in El Salvador is not a Trump administration (or even a U.S.) anomaly; the European Union is following the same playbook much to the chagrin of hundreds of human rights organizations (Amnesty International, March, 2025). The treatment of Abrego-Garcia is a harsh reminder that the international working class must unite against capitalist exploitation.
Don’t be fooled by “cool dictators”
In 2019, after decades of U.S.-sponsored civil war, gang war and economic instability, self-described ‘coolest dictator’ President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador basked in popular support. Many people felt a momentary reprieve from decades of state-sponsored violence and ignored the government’s punitive security policies being carried out with their knowledge, while ignoring the continuing economic and political assaults on the poorest (Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
But now the same working class faces the highest incarceration rate in the world. Anyone might be swept up and tossed into El Salvador’s brutal mega prison (CECOT) with no legal recourse (WOLA). Trump isn’t the only U.S. president to court fascist Bukele. In 2024, high ranking officials from the Biden administration attended Bukele’s inauguration for a second term.
Don’t fall for liberal politicians
Despite Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador, neither Democrats nor Republicans will allow systemic change from capitalism and racism. In their eyes “The working class be damned.” It is only us, the international working class, that can end capitalism with mass revolutionary change. Capitalism has got to go. In its place? An egalitarian system called communism with the world’s workers collectively running the world.
