Finally, A Ray Of Justice For the Man That Vance/Leavitt Demonized

There is a clear pattern forming now that Trump 2.0 administration members lie blatantly and uncontrollably — because they can. But they don’t succeed 100% of the time and that’s good news. One story that broke this week is that a Pentagon watchdog group has taken it upon itself, at the behest of the Senate Armed Services Committee to investigate SignalGate and that set of lies and obfuscations. That is happy news. But what about the truly horrific lie that both J.D. Vance and Karoline Leavitt told this week, about the innocent, victimized man who was sent to a brutal El Salvadoran prison due to “administrative error?”

In some ways this is even worse than SignalGate, at least morally speaking. SignalGate was massively incompetent and if such behavior persists, lives will be lost. Of that there is no question. But the damage done to Kilmar Abrego Garcia is far worse. That poor man did nothing and now along with ruining his life, the titular vice president and press secretary of this incompetent misadministration are indulging in vicious and defamatory remarks about Garcia which are beyond the pale. Somebody needs to stand up for this man. Maybe it will be the ACLU or a similar organization, because this is an un-American nightmare. It’s wonderful that a judge has ordered Garcia be returned to the country. But Vance and Leavitt and this horrific administration need to do some kind of recompense for not only tormenting an innocent man but then assassinating his character.

In a court filing on Monday, the Trump administration admitted that it had deported a Maryland father and legal resident to a violent, notorious Salvadoran prison based on an “administrative error.” This is outrageous in and of itself. But it gets worse. The man in question, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, had been granted protected status in 2019 that explicitly forbade him from being sent back to El Salvador, where he was from. And now the administration is saying they’re powerless to bring Garcia back to the U.S.

None of this has stopped the senior officials brazenly lying about what happened. Vice President JD Vance spent Tuesday morning viciously smearing Garcia as a “convicted MS-13 gang member.” That lie was later repeated by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who claimed to have seen evidence from the Department of Homeland Security that he was not just a “convicted” gang member but a leader of the violent MS-13 gang. Why would DHS, yet no one else, have evidence of that conviction? The simple answer is that Leavitt is lying. We know this because Trump administration lawyers already acknowledged that Garcia had been deported based on an error.

This is a habit with Leavitt. When SignalGate happened she lied that “no classified information was discussed.” This was after Brian Hughes, the spox for the National Security Council had verified just the opposite, when he confirmed that the message chain was authentic. And of course the fact that the bombs dropped exactly when and where they were announced in the thread to drop does tend to prove up the validity of the chain as well.

And it does make a kind of perverse sense that nobody questions Leavitt on her lies. We’ve already seen Reuters and the Associated Press suspended from the White House briefing room for far less transgressions than calling Leavitt out on one of her whoppers, namely the nomenclature for the body of water which is the Gulf Of something, either America or Mexico, depending upon your political alignment. But while it’s understandable why no one reporter or media outlet wants to put itself in the jaws of the tiger by asking an unpopular question, that does serve to hamstring the dissemination of truth.

As for the “conviction,” legal filings made on Garcia’s behalf explain the alleged MS-13 tie. Several years ago, Garcia had been arrested while soliciting work with three other men outside a Home Depot parking lot. One of the other men told officers that Garcia was an MS-13 member—likely in an effort to curry favor with the cops—“but the man offered no proof and police said they didn’t believe him,” The Atlantic reported. “Police did not identify him as a gang member.” Nevertheless, the Trump administration is using the accusation to justify deporting Garcia to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

This is outrageous. It’s illegal. It’s un-American. The Trump administration is ruining the lives of innocent people all across the country. It is flagrantly ignoring due process while it treats anyone born outside this country, even those here legally, as a criminal and invader. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is neither of those things. He has followed the law by checking in with ICE every year, and he works full-time as union sheet-metal apprentice to support a 5-year-old son with autism and a hearing defect. He’s precisely the kind of immigrant America should welcome.

Judge Paula Xinis has ordered that Garcia be returned to the United States, where he is a citizen.

Even Department of Homeland Security officials admitted in an earlier court filing that Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador last month because of an “administrative error.” Despite that, the Justice Department has argued that it cannot bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.

In a statement on Friday, Leavitt said, “We suggest the judge contact President Bukele.” That isn’t how any of this works but Leavitt is so abysmally ignorant that it makes sense to her to suggest that a district court judge speak to a leader of another nation about laws broken by this nation. We here suggest that Leavitt be given a tutorial in basic civics and, if possible, law.

As Xinis pointed out, the Justice Department has shown “no evidence” to back up its claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. Further, she said, by publicly labeling him as a gang member, the government put him at high risk of being targeted because as part of CECOT’s cruelty, the facility “intentionally mixes rival gang members.”

Attorneys for Abrego Garcia told The Atlantic the accusations that he is a gang member are false, pointing to police records that state law enforcement was unable to find reliable evidence to connect him with MS-13 in 2019. They additionally noted that Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of any crimes, nor has he been involved with law enforcement at any other times.

In simple language, Garcia’s only crime was being at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong ethnicity. Yet, we hear that Hispanics are becoming Trump supporters in increasing numbers. That is like chickens flocking to support Colonel Sanders.

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