When people can be removed from the land without due process of law, we are indeed reliving the “Wild Wild West.”
In American history, Native Americans were herded onto reservations without due process of law. In 1865, Colorado Governor John Evans issued this proclamation:
“Having sent special messengers to the Indians of the plains, directing the friendly to rendezvous at Fort Lyon, Fort Larned, Fort Laramie, and Camp Collins for safety and protection, warning them that all hostile Indians would be pursued and destroyed, and the last of said messengers having now returned, and the evidence being conclusive that most of the Indian tribes of the plains are at war and hostile to the whites,…Now, therefore, I, John Evans, governor of Colorado Territory, do issue this my proclamation, authorizing all citizens of Colorado, either individually or in such parties as they may organize, to go in pursuit of all hostile Indians on the plains, scrupulously avoiding those who have responded to my said call to rendezvous at the points indicated; also, to kill and destroy, as enemies of the country.”
The result of Governor Evans’ proclamation was the Sand Creek Massacre.In the context of history, nobody wants to say, “been there, done that,” but to be honest, we are there again.Governor John Evans found a way to disappear Black Kettle’s village of Southern Cheyenne from the land just by labeling them “enemies of the country.”Last week, Jennifer Vasquez stood before the cameras in Maryland and said: “On March 12, my husband, Kilmar, was abducted and disappeared by the Trump administration.”
If not for video footage of him being led into a notorious megaprison in El Salvador, he would indeed have been “disappeared.”The fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is so dystopian that even George Orwell could not have imagined it.A democracy has guardrails designed to keep it on track—and the most important of those is the rule of law.Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker wrote:“No one should be above the law, most especially the president. Ignoring a Supreme Court ruling to facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return isn’t just cruel, it’s unconstitutional. They’re saying the quiet part aloud. If they get away with it now, they’ll do it to anyone.”
In the grand scheme of things, what matters is the human conscience—the law that God has written on our hearts. Is America governed by the rule of law, or is it guided by the immoral compass of prosperity? This coming Resurrection Sunday, America would do well to reflect on the Word of God:
“Again the Devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
‘All this I will give to you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”’”
—Matthew 4:8-10
Steve Melendez, Paiute
President, American Indian Genocide Museum
