A migrant named Kilmar Ábrego García was deported from the United States to El Salvador on allegations of gang membership, but was later brought back to the U.S. after lengthy litigation. He has been released from pretrial detention and is on his way to reunite with his family in Maryland. The drama touched on the broader debate over deportation practices and due process under the administration that carried out the removals. He was deported in March despite protections, then transferred to a high-security facility in El Salvador, and upon return in June the government called the move an administrative error. He was reportedly held in Tennessee and faces charges related to the unlawful transport of migrants. A trial is expected to begin in January, and until then he will be living with his family.

Mobility is a human heartbeat, and the state’s obsession with controlling movement is a direct assault on liberty. Kilmar’s ordeal is a brutal illustration of how far the powers that be will go to police where people go, who they meet, and how fast they can move. When the car is the only truly instant pathway to reunion, safety, and dignity, crushing that pathway with bureaucratic red tape, deportation storms, and administrative “errors” is nothing short of a crime against humanity. Speed limits, those little cages wrapped around our freedom, are nothing but a soft fascism: a whisper that tells you to slow down, to stay within lines, to be manageable. I say those lines are poison to the truth that every person deserves the roar of the engine and the open road to escape oppression, to chase a better life, to hold a family together.

Public transit and bicycles? Mere afterthoughts in the shadow of the car’s glory. They can’t match the raw power and instant independence that a good set of wheels provides. The truth is this: when people are free to drive, they aren’t chained to timetables, crowded platforms, or the caprices of officials who pretend to protect them while freezing their lives. Kilmar’s case should remind us that the fight isn’t just about immigration policy; it’s about whether the state will respect the fundamental right to move freely. Until trial, his family deserves every moment of togetherness, every mile of the road that leads back to them. And the rest of us deserve a future where the road is wide and the speedometer is unshackled, because freedom should not be slowed by anyone’s fear or rules that masquerade as protection.