The Real Issue Isn’t Tattoos — It’s the White House's Threats to Due Process

President Donald Trump is sharing images on his social media alleging that a tattooed hand, purportedly belonging to Kilmar Abrego Garcia (the man wrongfully deported from the U.S. by the administration) is evidence that he is part of a violent gang and thus deserves to remain out of the country.

Users online are split over whether that's actually the case — but even if it were true, it ignores the crux of this entire debate.

Indeed, the pics are meant to distract from a larger issue.

Maybe the tattoos are legitimate. So what? Abrego Garcia was denied his right to defend himself when he was deported last month to an El Salvador mega-prison, without a court's review or oversight.

Image via Donald Trump/X

Trump can use these images to make a case against him — but that should be done in a courtroom, where the legitimacy and meaning of these tattoos can be examined and discussed, not in a social media post after the fact, after the irreparable harm to a person's rights have occurred.

Abrego Garcia was denied his due process rights. A denial of these rights for one person is a denial of them for everyone. After all, what's to say that Trump can't do the same to you? Detain you, imprison you or even send you out of the country; then, when challenged on such an action, defend himself by sharing social media posts of your behavior at a bar when you were in your 20s?

Don't shrug this off as being something that will never happen — the administration has admitted it's already considering "deporting" citizens. This is not how America's process of law is supposed to work. And we should all be extremely worried that Trump is dismantling the system that keeps your or I safe from the whims of a single, ruthless political leader.