One of my personal hopes in the indecent case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was kidnapped by ICE and sent illegally to an El Salvador prison, is the knowledge that some Marshalltown elected officials oppose this decision and support the 40 percent of Hispanic residents who live here.

Garcia arrived here as a refugee when he was 16. A judge granted legal status years ago. He is married with children and a union member. The Trump/Vance administration kidnapped and shipped him to El Salvador and one of the world’s worst prisons because of a clerical error.

His Maryland senator, Christopher Van Hollen Jr., has demanded his release, met with him in prison but a deceitful President Trump claims he can’t get him back despite a unanimous Supreme Court decision and a court order. We are paying tax dollars to El Salvador to keep him away from his grieving family.

Marshalltown once welcomed a nine-year old refugee named Carlos Portes from Castro Cuba. He grew up here and became President Carter’s Special Ambassador to Latin America.

VP Vance and his family visited a dying Pope on Easter Sunday. I wonder if Pope Francis saw the irony in seeing the Vance family at his gates while Garcia couldn’t celebrate Easter because of prison gates.

Vance visited the Pope to create a photo opportunity to deflect the papal condemnation of Trump/Vance immigration policy. Vance, a self-described “baby Catholic,” is ignorant about Roman Catholic Church doctrine and falsely uses it to defend denying due process to immigrants.

Another so-called prominent Catholic, “border czar” Tom Homan, in televised interviews has lied about Garcia being a gang member. He has no evidence. He’s Javert in Les Miserables stalking Jean Valjean.

Equally gross is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a Kiss of the Spider Woman photo op with El Salvador prisoners as a backdrop. All that is missing is her executed dog.

Ironically, Pope Francis gave three chocolate Easter eggs to Vance for his children, not the traditional Papal blessed rosaries. Chocolate eggs are an ephemeral gift to be consumed.

Trump will exploit the photo op. It has no authenticity as there is zero authenticity in anything connected to Trump and Vance.