Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt mocked the man that President Donald Trump’s administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
Leavitt called Kilmar Abrego Garcia “an MS-13…illegal alien criminal who was hiding in Maryland.” She called the media outrage over his deportation “despicable.”
“Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for father of the year,” she said.
Abrego Garcia was deported to a Salvadoran prison on March 15, in a move the Trump administration admitted was an “error” in court filings. The Supreme Court ordered the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return in a ruling earlier this week, a demand the administration has seemingly ignored.
Trump and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele threw their hands up over the idea of bringing Abrego Garcia back to the United States during a White House visit on Monday.
“How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States?” Bukele said. “Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”
In a brief filed on Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argued that the Trump administration is making no effort to return their client to the United States.
“The Government contends that the term ‘facilitate’ is limited to ‘remov[ing] any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here.’ Not so. The Supreme Court ordered the Government ‘to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,'” they wrote. “The Government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia. To date, the Government has not done so.”
While many Trump officials have played at following along with the law, border czar Tom Homan openly wondered what the point of putting on a dog-and-pony show for the Supreme Court would be.
“If somehow he comes back and that happens, he’s gonna be detained and removed again,” he shared during a stop by Fox News on Tuesday. “What’s the sense of bringing someone back who’s simply going to face deportation again?”
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