A Trump official has defended the administration’s decision to ignore court rulings about returning a deported El Salvadoran migrant to the US by likening him to Osama Bin Laden.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin hit out at those referring to Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a ‘Maryland father’.
‘I think this illegal alien is exactly where he belongs – home in El Salvador,’ McLaughlin told Fox.
‘He was in our country illegally. He’s from El Salvador, was born in El Salvador, and oh, the media forgot to mention he is an MS-13 gang member.
‘The media would love for you to believe this is a media darling and that’s just a Maryland father. Well, Osama bin Laden was also a father. And yet, he wasn’t a good guy and they actually are both terrorists.’
Abrego Garcia deported to El Salvador’s brutal CECOT prison last month after he was accused of being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
His lawyers claim he has no gang affiliations, no criminal charges and has lived peacefully in Maryland with his wife and three children for the last ten years.
CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins attempted to question the president about his case on Monday but was quickly eviscerated by Trump and his officials.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin hit out at those referring to deported El Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a ‘ Maryland father’
Garcia was deported to his homeland after Trump officials accused him of being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, which he denies
Abrego Garcia came to the US through illegal means in 2019. But he was protected by a withholding order which prevented his deportation, as his lawyers successfully argued he was unsafe in his homeland.
Trump officials initially branded his removal an ‘administrative error’, but have since walked back this claim and have been fighting subsequent court rulings ordering his return to the US.
Trump was questioned about the defiance Collins during a sit down in the Oval Office yesterday alongside El Salvador’s President Nayib Buekele.
Collins attempted to question whether the president intends to follow court orders but was quickly eviscerated by him and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was also present.
Abrego Garcia’s case has quickly become a flashpoint amid the president’s attempts to expand the White House’s control over immigration matters.
The US Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling directing the administration to ‘facilitate and effectuate’ Abrego Garcia’s return.
But it said the term ‘effectuate’ was unclear and might exceed the authority of the district court judge.
The Trump administration has indicated it does not plan to ask for Abrego Garcia back, raising questions about whether it is defying the courts.
McLaughlin pointed out that renowned terrorist Osama Bin Laden was ‘also a father’ as she attempted to defend her department’s defiance of court orders regarding Abrego Garcia
On Monday El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele said he would not help return Abrego Garcia and suggested he was a ‘terrorist’
His comments came after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tried to press the president on whether he would respect court rulings about Abrego Garcia
In a Monday court filing, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official said the agency ‘does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.’
And during the sit down at the Oval Office on Monday, Bukele suggested he would not be returning Abrego Garcia.
‘The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?’ he said. ‘I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.’
‘Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
‘First and foremost, he was illegally in our country, and he had been illegally in our country,’ she said. ‘That´s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That´s not up to us.’
Hundreds of people have been deported to El Salvador under the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The country has in return received around $6 million to house deportees at CECOT, a high-security mega-prison.
The State Department last week lifted its advisory for American travelers to El Salvador to the safest level, crediting Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the U.S. government assertion that they were.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .