Opinion: When a hat becomes a threat

I have seen Chicago Bulls hats all over the world. I remember covering the siege of Sarajevo in 1993, and being astonished to see so many Bulls hats worn by people who bravely persisted in a city besieged by bombs and sniper fire.

Basketball was hugely popular in Bosnia. But the adulation for the Bulls seemed something more. Michael Jordan’s soaring leaps toward the basket made it look as if human beings really could fly, if only across a basketball court.

I would later see Bulls hats in Paris, Beijing, Tel Aviv and Baghdad, as well as across America. That team of Jordan, Pippen, Steve Kerr and Dennis Rodman had players on the roster from all over the world, who seemed to evoke the energy of America.

And so it stood out for me this week in the reporting about what the Trump Administration calls an “administrative error” that sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran prison, that the cause might date back to 2019. Abrego Garcia was stopped for loitering in front of a Home Depot in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and interrogated by police who thought he was part of the violent MS-13 gang.

A Prince George’s County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet of March 28, 2019 notes that Kilmar Abrego Garcia denied being part of the gang. But he wore a Bulls cap. The officers wrote, “Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents [that] they are a member in good standing with the MS-13.”

The Chicago Bulls—and I say this as their fan—have been mostly mediocre since that team of the 1990s won six championships. But they remain one of the most popular brands in sports. Lids, the sports store, reported in 2022 that Bulls merchandise is their best-seller in more than half the country. I wonder if all those people buying Bulls hats know they’re declaring themselves gang members.

A U.S. immigration judge ultimately granted Abrego Garcia protection from being deported, because he had actually faced persecution by gangs in El Salvador. He gained a federal work permit, married, and was raising his family, taking classes and doing an apprenticeship. His lawyers say he’s not part of MS-13 or any other gang.

When he met this week with Senator Chris Van Hollen, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wearing a Kansas City Chiefs hat. Maybe sometimes, a hat is just a hat.