I was working in El Salvador when President Nayib Bukele declared a state of exception. In 2022, after a sudden spike in homicides, he suspended due process and sent soldiers into neighborhoods. Overnight, thousands were detained. Many were guilty. Many were not.

Bukele's crackdown raised a brutal question: What is the value of democracy without security?

Now, as troops are threatened for deployment in American cities, we face the inverse: What is the value of security without democracy? Salvadorans saw violence drop, streets reopen, tourism grow. But three years later, the state of exception remains. Security became the justification, democracy the casualty. That is the trade-off we must avoid.

Of course, El Salvador's democracy has always been more fragile than our own. The state of exception came in the wake of decades of violence and weak institutions. The United States is different: We're stronger and our systems of accountability more resilient. That is precisely why the comparison matters.

Bukele acted in what many believed was a true emergency, but the danger lies in how quickly emergency became routine. For us, with crime........

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