Kilmar Abrego Garcia is no victim. His travails with the US court system began when he crossed the border illegally to get here in March of 2012. He moved in with his brother Cesar, also an illegal alien, in the state of Maryland.
While Cesar applied for and ultimately received US citizenship, Kilmar never attempted to become a citizen. Nor did he ever apply for a work permit (Green Card) or attempt to attain asylum or any version of legal status in the US for the next seven years.
In 2019, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Maryland with three other men for the relatively innocuous charge of loitering. It was during that incident that the local police not only became aware of his illegal status, but had reason to suspect he was a member of the MS-13 gang.
He was interviewed by police, who proceeded to fill out a “Gang Field Interview Sheet”. Determining membership in a gang is by nature a subjective and inexact science. There are no ID cards, blood tests, or registries. Law enforcement must therefore rely on informants and telltale signs such as clothing, tattoos, close associates, drug possession, location, etc. The information gathered in this case was enough to conclude three of the loiterers (including Abrego Garcia) were likely members of MS-13. This, combined with their illegal status, resulted in their arrest.
This is where Abrego Garcia’s contact with the courts, and thus his “due process”, began. His first request of the immigration court was that he be released from jail on bond, claiming he was not a member of MS-13 and not a threat to the public. A hearing took place with lawyers on each side, evidence was presented, and an immigration judge concluded he was a member of MS-13. He lost this case and was denied bond.
Abrego Garcia decided to appeal that decision, initiating another hearing. More evidence was presented, and a second judge also concluded that the evidence was compelling enough to connect him to MS-13. The decision to deny bond was upheld. He remained in jail until his third encounter with the immigration courts later that year.
His third hearing was regarding his deportation. Abrego Garcia was not contesting his deportability (he even conceded to being deportable in the court record). He was however looking for some form of “relief” regarding his coming deportation. He pleaded his case on three different fronts:
First was a request for asylum, which he was denied because it was well beyond the one-year limit on such claims. Second was an assertion under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) that he could not be deported to his home country for fear of being tortured. That was also denied as he could not present any credible evidence that torture would occur. Third was a claim for “Withholding of Removal” pursuant to the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
A withholding from removal order would not prevent him from being deported, he just could not be deported specifically to El Salvador. The reason given for this request was that his family’s business was under threat from a gang called Barrio-18 and his return would cause that gang to harm his family’s business. He was granted this request.
The question now arises as to why he wasn’t immediately deported to some other country after this third court proceeding. He could have been taken anywhere in the world except El Salvador, as his due process in the US had now fully run its course. The answer likely had a lot to do with timing. It was now December of 2019, and barely a month later, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the US. All of the government’s attention became focused on COVID. Deportations, along with many other things, were instantly a much lower priority.
Once the COVID-19 situation was better understood and under some control, the Biden Administration took office. Not only did deportations decrease dramatically, but the floodgates also opened at the southern border leading to 11 million more illegal immigrants entering the country. Thus, Abrego Garcia, still having an active deportation order, continued living illegally in Maryland for the next four years without the government apprehending and deporting him.
Once Trump was inaugurated in January of this year, deportations were ordered to be resumed at a greatly accelerated pace, as per Trump’s campaign pledge to voters. It was therefore no surprise that Abrego Garcia was picked up and flown out. There was no requirement to inform him ahead of time (he was well informed of his deportation status six years earlier), or to afford him any additional legal challenges (he already had a deportation order from his immigration hearing in 2019 and had challenged it for “relief”).
All of this was cut and dry until the Administration removed him to El Salvador, the one place where the legal system said he couldn’t go. They could’ve taken him anywhere else in the world, and we likely never would have heard about this case again. While the justifications for granting the 2019 withholding order are no longer valid (the threatened family business had long since closed and the Barrio-18 gang no longer exists), that order still had to be lifted by an immigration court to legally remove him to El Salvador.
Whether the Trump Administration made a mistake (as they claim), or they willfully ignored Abrego Garcia’s withholding order, is immaterial at this point. He is now in El Salvador. There is nothing the anti-Trump forces can do to get him back. And, having now designated MS-13 a terrorist organization, there is no desire in the Trump Administration to have him back. He is a citizen of El Salvador and is now under the jurisdiction of the government of El Salvador.
In the time since this case gained national notoriety, more information about Abrego Garcia’s past behavior has come out. It includes two documented cases of domestic abuse and evidence of human trafficking. While the conservative media is making much of these stories, they are a sideshow to the main issue.
What is currently happening before our eyes is that every Democrat, most of the news media, and federal district court judges are all engaging in a gigantic, coordinated lie about the facts of this case for what they believe is political gain. Granted, the Trump Administration opened themselves to legitimate criticism by violating Abrego Garcia’s withholding order to El Salvador and making no effort to correct that error. However, Democrats and the media making up an entirely false narrative of this case just makes things much worse.
You can’t go a day without hearing that Abrego Garcia was denied all “due process”, has never been proven to be MS-13, and was illegally deported without having been given notice or an opportunity to challenge his deportation status. As should be obvious to anyone who invests 30 minutes reading the actual immigration court documents1 from the cases cited above, none of these assertions are true. It is all completely fake news.
The main tactic being used by the Dems and the media is to intentionally conflate Abrego Garcia’s case with that of Tren de Aragua gang members who were recently deported under the Alien Enemies Act. These are two entirely separate cases – Abrego Garcia already had a deportation order from an immigration judge and did not require the Alien Enemies Act to be deported (as did the Tren de Aragua gang members). As a result, Abrego Garcia is not subject to the new rules imposed by the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding use of the Alien Enemies Act (advance notice of deportation, and a “reasonable” period to challenge).
In addition to all the false information surrounding this case, no mention is never made of the reality of what would happen if the Democrats actually succeeded in having Abrego Garcia returned to the US from El Salvador. Here is how it would go:
Being an illegal alien (even putting aside his MS-13 affiliation), Abrego Garcia would be immediately detained by ICE upon entry into the US. From there, two possible legal scenarios could unfold. First, since his deportation order still stands, he could immediately be deported to another country, just not El Salvador. Technically, they wouldn’t even have to take him off the plane.
The second scenario would be for the DOJ to challenge his withholding order in an immigration court. Since, as mentioned above, the original circumstances of that withholding order no longer exist, the DOJ is very likely to win that challenge, and the withholding order would be withdrawn. Legally, Abrego Garcia would then be permitted to appeal that decision if he chose, which he would most likely lose. Then the Administration could legally deport him back to El Salvador, ending him up exactly where he is right now.
The narrative being promulgated by Democrats and the media is that Abrego Garcia could be brought back to the US, be reunited with his family, and live happily ever after in the State of Maryland. This is pure fiction.
This case is a prime example of how the Democrats and their news media cohorts are, and will be, creating entirely false realities for the next four years of the Trump Presidency. It is their only play, and they are pretty good at it. Don’t fall for it.
12019 Police Report and Bond Request Hearing; Deportation Hearing and Withholding of Removal Granted