The wife of Kilmar Abrego García, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration, has been moved to a safe house by supporters after U.S. officials posted a court document on social media that included the family’s address.
All had left authoritarian countries to build new lives in the United States, a place they believed would be different. But they now see ominous patterns repeating and democratic norms eroding — and feel a duty to warn Americans.
“It honestly feels like I just switched rooms on the Titanic,” said Miguel Mendoza, a former political prisoner in Nicaragua who lives in Orlando.
The Washington Post spoke with 12 people from six authoritarian countries — some who fled left-wing regimes and others right-wing ones. They described an unsettling feeling of déjà vu in the initial months of the Trump administration: the attacks on courts and the press; the threats to universities and law firms; the hollowing out of agencies; the scapegoating and mass deportation of immigrants; the marginalizing of transgender people.
