The emergency is here. The crisis is now. It is not six months away. It is not another Supreme Court ruling away from happening. It’s happening now.

Perhaps not to you, not yet. But to others. Real people. We know their names. We know their stories.

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks to the media during a press conference.Credit: AP

The president of the US is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists. It is a prison where the only way out, in the words of El Salvador’s so-called justice minister, is in a coffin.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said, sitting next to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, that he would like to do this to US citizens as well: “If it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem. Now, we’re studying the laws right now. [US Attorney-General] Pam [Bondi] is studying. If we can do that, that’s good. And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in.”

He told Bukele he would need to build five more of these prisons because America has so many people Trump wants to send to them.

“Why? Do you think there’s a special category of person? They’re as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones, too. Because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security. ”

Why does the US need El Salvador’s prisons? For the Trump administration, El Salvador’s prisons are the answer to the problem of American law.

The Trump administration holds the view that anyone it sends to El Salvador is beyond the reach of American law — they have been disappeared not only from the US but from its system — and from any protection or process that system affords.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is from El Salvador. His mother, Cecilia, ran a tortilla shop in San Salvador. A gang, Barrio 18, began extorting the business, demanding payments. If the family didn’t pay, Barrio 18 threatened to murder Kilmar’s brother Cesar or to rape their sisters.

Barrio 18 demanded Cesar join their gang, at which point the family sent Cesar to America. Then Barrio 18 demanded the........

© The Age