They deserve better, and so do we.
Who are they? Mahmoud Khalil, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Rümeysa Öztürk, Jasmine Mooney, and hundreds more detained or deported without due process or representation.[1] Today, there are thousands of students, legal residents, and asylum seekers in the United States at risk while driving their children to school, shopping at the grocery store, attending a religious service, seeking employment, or simply traveling with non-criminal intent. They risk the same outcomes others have already faced and whose lives now hang in the balance of authoritarian actors and human rights violators.
Wrongful imprisonment, the denial of a fair public trial, human trafficking, and slavery are examples of crimes against humanity. Whether citizens, foreigners, residents, or visitors, all have equal rights as free people. No one can—or should—be at risk of being singled out, targeted, wrongly accused, unjustly held, forcibly relocated, or kidnapped. There is no debate. Such actions are a well-documented and agreed-upon violation of an individual’s free will and human rights.
When other’s rights are denied, our’s are threatened too.
In a post-Civil Rights era, it would seem abhorrent to most that such practices exist in a democratic society apart from underground bad actors or notorious authoritarian regimes. However, everywhere we look, there is a growing resurgence, indifference, and endorsement of inequality, segregation, and the denial of human rights. Most shocking, is how some of the most egregious violations are occurring under the direction, authority, and resources of federal and state governments in the United States.
The denial of a person’s humanity and fundamental rights is where the exploitation, abuse, and enslavement of others for political or economic gain begin. Look no further than the United States’ contract with El Salvador and their CECOT mega-prison facility. Without international government oversight and far from the protections of human rights lawyers, activists, and leaders, innocent men have been detained on American soil, and without due process, relocated without cause or humane precedent. Once in El Salvador, individuals are given a prison sentence for life without a trial.[2] Legal residents of the United States, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, may never see his wife and children again, although he has never been found guilty of any crime.
More alarming is the recent public diplomacy of the El Salvadorian President with Venezuela on social media.[3,4] The offer is to exchange the recent arrivals of presumed Venezuelan nationals deported illegally from the United States to CECOT with “political prisoners” held by Venezuela. Such proposals are how modern governments engage in slave trades and the exploitation of people as bargaining chips for political or economic gain.
As people of hope, we believe in the goodness, belonging, and freedom of all people.
When other’s rights are denied, our’s are threatened too. Creating a better tomorrow depends on our collective consciousness rooted in fundamental rights and values extended to all persons. As people of hope, we believe in the goodness, belonging, and freedom of all people. When we promote and protect the full and rightful humanity of others, we protect our own personhood and agency. By upholding their rights, we strengthen ours. If we desire fair representation, impartial treatment, and freedom of thought, faith, and agency, we must zealously extend the same to others.
In his letter from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr. penned a universal truth: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Hope is an actionable story that creates change. We all dream of living in a society where every community is safe, social services are reliable, opportunities are fair, justice is equitable, and our humanity is seen, honored, and upheld. As people of hope and change, we recognize when one person’s humanity is denied, so can ours. May we be forever the protectors of life, liberty, and possibility for all.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/18/people-detained-deported-trump-immigration-crackdown
Matt Till 