1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

I’m writing as a deeply concerned constituent, and frankly, as someone who’s horrified by what I’m seeing. Venezuelan refugees are being deported—not to their country of origin, and not after proper due process—but straight into one of the most abusive prisons in the world: El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. These individuals are being held without legal representation, without contact with the outside world, and without basic rights. El Salvador has signed international agreements like the ICCPR, which require legal counsel. They are clearly violating them. And our country is funding it. That makes us complicit in gross human rights abuses. To make matters worse, legal residents—and even some U.S. citizens—have reportedly received letters telling them they have seven days to “self-deport.” I have to ask: where exactly is a U.S. citizen supposed to go? What are we even doing? Refugees are here legally. Due process is not a luxury or a loophole—it is a constitutional guarantee. Yet I’m now seeing public figures arguing that some people simply don’t deserve due process at all. I don’t care who someone is or what they’re accused of—stripping people of legal rights based on who they are is exactly how freedom is lost. If we start deciding who gets rights and who doesn’t, the rule of law becomes meaningless. Timothy Snyder reminds us: “History does not repeat, but it does inform.” And what history shows us is that this is the path of the 1930s—and I say that without a shred of hyperbole. When we dehumanize, silence, detain without trial, and criminalize people simply for existing, we are walking a dangerous, familiar road. Snyder also said: “Do not obey in advance.” We have a responsibility not to normalize what is fundamentally wrong. Let me be absolutely clear: in this country, we don’t take people off the street for having tattoos and send them to a foreign gulag. I don’t want the taxes I pay funding this kind of depravity and injustice. I would never willingly support human rights abuses like these, and I do not want my government doing it in my name. I urge you to speak out. Demand transparency. Stand up for the rule of law and basic human decency—because if we don’t, we’re no better than the regimes we claim to oppose.