(The Center Square) – The White House on Tuesday pushed back on those criticizing the Trump administration for its efforts to deport criminal noncitizens after it was disclosed that an El Salvadoran man in the U.S. legally was deported to his home country because of an administrative error.
On March 15, officials deported a group of purported gang members to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, including an immigrant living in Maryland, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The administration has since admitted in court documents that Abrego Garcia was erroneously deported, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed at a press briefing Tuesday. Despite Abrego Garcia’s expulsion being caused by a “clerical error,” he won’t be coming back to the U.S. because he was a “leader” in the international criminal gang, Mara Salvatrucha-13, according to Leavitt.
“The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and viscous MS-13 gang,” Leavitt said.
The press secretary also said authorities have evidence the man was involved in human trafficking and a leader in the MS-13 gang, which President Donald Trump designated a foreign terrorist organization.
MS-13 “is a brutal and vicious gang,” Leavitt said. “They raped and strangled a 20-year-old autistic woman to death in Maryland. They hacked four people to death with machetes in a park on Long Island. They have kidnapped, sexually tortured and shot a teenage girl in Texas after she insulted them, allegedly.”
Vice President J.D. Vance called Abrego Garcia a “convicted member of MS-13” in a social media post, though Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of a crime in the U.S and his lawyer says he was living in the U.S. legally, according to reports. An immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia asylum protections in 2019, adding to the concerns of some that the Trump administration doesn’t properly respect the authority of the judicial branch.
“A judge ordered that he should remain in this country, so are you saying that it is OK to ignore a judge’s ruling if you don’t like it?” another reporter asked.
Leavitt repeatedly referred to President Donald Trump’s executive order that denies legal protections to any foreign terrorist organization in the U.S.
“Who does that judge work for?” Leavitt responded. “It was an immigration judge who works for the Department of Justice at the direction of the attorney general of the United States, whose name is Pam Bondi, who has committed to eradicating MS-13 from our nation’s interior.”
Since Trump first took office, Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers have deported more than 100,000 illegal migrants, and arrested more than 110,000, according to Just The News.
