What makes a demand futile is this: The one making the demand is unable to punish the target of the demand for refusing to give what is demanded.

In order for a demand to be effective, there has to be the ability to punish for failure to comply.

Yet, people are always making demands that are futile, and the only parties profiting from such demands are the media outlets reporting them.

To illustrate what this blogger means, he presents two contrasting actions that American politicians have taken in response to the imprisonment of Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador.

When U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D – MD) visited the man, the Senator’s goal was “to meet with García so he could ‘tell his wife and family he was OK’. ‘That was my goal. And I achieved that goal,’ he [Van Hollen] said.”

This blogger applauds the Senator for achieving his humanitarian goal.

However, this blogger does NOT applaud four other Congress-critters who flew to El Salvador after Senator Van Hollen completed his mission there.

From National Public Radio, 21 April 2025:

“Four House Democrats were scheduled to land in El Salvador Monday to demand the release and return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who lived in Maryland and was deported by the administration to a prison in El Salvador due to what the Trump administration an ‘administrative error.’

The group — Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., and Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore. — said in a statement they hope ‘to pressure’ the White House ‘to abide by a Supreme Court order.’

‘While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Ábrego García is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,’ Rep. Garcia said. ‘That is why we’re here — to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.’ ”

Yeah, right.

If those four Congress-critters really went to El Salvador “to demand” as NPR claims, then they are engaging in an act of futility.

Just how would they punish the goverment of El Salvador if the latter does not give what is demanded?

Like it or not, it is the government of El Salvador that is control of the situation, not Donald Trump, not anyone else in the Trump Administration, not the U.S. Supreme Court.

The moment that Kilmar Ábrego García landed in El Salvador and was taken into custody by the El Salvador government, the USA lost control of the man’s fate.

At least that is the case to the best of this blogger’s knowledge.

Here I go again playing Donald Trump’s/Devil’s Advocate*:

Just how could the Trump Administration get Kilmar Ábrego García out of El Salvador without violating the sovereignty of the El Salvador government within its own jurisdiction?

If Donald Trump isn’t doing everything within his authority to get the man out of El Salvador, then one can make the case that Trump is violating an order from the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, if Trump is doing everything within his authority, then why scold him for what the El Salvador government is doing?

Congressman Robert Garcia states, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador.”

Uh, according to what law? U.S. law or El Salvador law? Does U.S. law apply in El Salvador?

Congressman Garcia is quoted as saying, “That is why we’re here — to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.”

Pardon me, but just how does one remind the American people of anything by taking a trip outside of the USA?

Yes, it stinks that Kilmar Ábrego García was sent to El Salvador.

This blogger would like to see someone in the U.S. government be effectively punished for creating the stink, someone actually responsible for it. How does four Congress-critters going to El Salvador accomplish such a thing?

As this blogger sees it, Representatives Garcia, Frost, Ansari and Dexter are grandstanding. What they are doing may help their political careers, but it isn’t helping Kilmar Ábrego García.

Granted, this blogger could be mistaken, but right now he doesn’t see how.

*After I play Donald Trump’s/Devil’s Advocate, I have myself scrubbed the way that Indiana Jones was scrubbed after he survived a nuclear blast.