One of the things negotiators demand in dealing with a kidnapping is proof of life. Is the person being held and for which some kind of ransom is being demanded still alive? In Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case no one seems to be asking for this, at least not publicly.

But being disappeared off the streets by operatives of a fascist regime—yes, our government—and shipped off to a foreign prison is not a hopeful sign.

If history is a guide—and it should be—there are many examples of what fascist governments do with people they have disappeared. In Chile, Pinochet packed his enemies—and he apparently had a lot of them—into the soccer stadium in Santiago and repurposed that facility into one of torture and executions rather than sports.

The first German concentration camp was Dachau—built by the Nazis in 1933—was initially intended to hold Hitler’s political opponents: communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. An important fact about Dachau was that it served as a prototype and model for the other German concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps.

El Salvador’s CECOT supermax prison appears to be serving as Trump’s Dachau. Its reputation is one of brutality and inhumanity. And yesterday Trump urged El Salvador’s fascist leader to build more, a suggestion that he eagerly agreed to, saying, “We have the room.” Since the Trump administration is paying El Salvador to take these “deportees,” it can be assumed that if Bukele builds more prisons, he will just take in more money.

So “businessman” Trump is outsourcing people to a brutal regime and mentally washing his hands—he thinks—of the stink.

These early deportation exercises also have the appearance of trial runs, testing the waters of how far the administration can take their blatant violations of civil rights and constitutional protections. Trump’s ambitions include deporting American citizens to these gulags. Just the bad criminals he says. Of course this is rich coming from a convicted felon.

Another question we do not hear being asked is “What happens to these deportees in the end?” Will they just rot and die in prison? Will they be shipped off to do labor of some kind? Will they be taken on one-way helicopter flights to the ocean? With Trump’s ambition of deporting millions of immigrants—and Americans now—will El Salvador have enough room for all these people or will other fascist allies jump into this dark business?

We know how the Germans “solved” their deportation problems in the end: hydrogen cyanide gas showers and crematoriums. Has the Trump administration already held its own version of the Wansee Conference to determine their end game? If so we will probably find out as soon as one of these evil fools adds another reporter to a crime-bragging message chat.

In the meantime as Judge Paula Xinis is ratcheting up the pressure on Trump’s DOJ lawyers, the question of proof of life for Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be front of mind. Is he alive? Was he already used as a test case for some sort of “final solution” from the blatant Nazis of the Trump administration?

Time will tell. What it tells us is what should worry us all.