_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
The media says he was "mistakenly deported" — but the White House contends he's an illegal MS-13 gang member who got exactly what he deserved.
Activists and mainstream news outlets have identified Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland man” to obscure his status as an illegal alien and gang member, arguing that the Trump administration wrongly deported him back to his home country of El Salvador.
Trump officials maintain the deportation was legal and justified, but the Supreme Court ruled the administration must “facilitate” his return to the US. El Salvador, however, will not release him.
_THE FACTS_
Abrego Garcia was arrested in the company of two other MS-13 gang members and was carrying drugs and rolls of cash.
The Department of Homeland Security also alleged he was “involved in human trafficking.”
A court in 2019 asserted that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “a verified member of MS-13.”
A withholding order prevented his return to his home country of El Salvador, due to threats from a rival gang. The Trump administration sent him there anyway, which they admitted was a mistake.
But as Trump adviser Stephen Miller pointed out, that rival gang no longer exists, clearing the way for his deportation.
Miller also contends that MS-13’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization nullifies the withholding order.
A narrative is spreading that around 90 percent of deported migrants sent to El Salvador have no criminal record.
The administration says they were all in the United States illegally, some with felony convictions and human smuggling charges, though illegal presence alone is generally a civil violation, not a crime.
El Salvador jailed them after the administration identified them as gang members — most of them Venezuelans it accused of ties to Tren de Aragua, along with alleged MS-13 members. Once the US sends them into the country, the Salvadoran government determines their fate.
_INSIGHTS_
While the White House reviews the legality of Abrego Garcia’s deportation, the facts remain clear: he was in the US illegally, a gang member, and a domestic abuser. Even if Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to release him, the Trump administration would deport him elsewhere.
Democrats may object to sending deportees to El Salvador’s high-security prison, but without incarceration, there’s little stopping violent gang members from returning to the US. Despite criticism of Bukele and his prison, it has helped transform El Salvador from the murder capital of the world to the safest country in the Western Hemisphere — a shift reflected in Bukele’s soaring approval rating of over 90 percent.
Correction, Oct. 31, 2026: An earlier version of this article said all of the deportees sent to El Salvador had criminal records and implied they belonged to Salvadoran gangs. Most were Venezuelans the administration accused of Tren de Aragua ties.
