White House hits out at 'appalling' attempt to return wrongly deported immigrant from El Salvador
16 April 2025, 23:32 | Updated: 17 April 2025, 11:44
The White House called the man an 'illegal alien terrorist' after the Democrats attempted to return the wrongly deported immigrant to the US.
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported from the US to prison in El Salvador, despite having an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs.
The Supreme Court ruled on April 11 that the Trump administration must work to bring back Mr Garcia, who Washington admits was deported due to an "administrative error".
Trump officials have since claimed Mr Garcia is involved with the MS-13 gang. Mr Garcia's lawyers argued there is no evidence of this.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Democrats "refuse to accept the will of the American people".
"The number one issue they are focused on right now is bringing back this illegal alien terrorist to America.
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US Senator Chris Van Hollen arrived in El Salvador to speak to the country's leaders about Mr Garcia on Wednesday - but his request was denied.
Mr Van Hollen claimed vice-president JD Vance blocked the senator from meeting with Mr Garcia.
Ms Leavitt continued: "It's appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats are plotting his trip to El Salvador today, are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents in our citizens."
The press conference ended with Patty Morin who described her daughter's murder by an illegal immigrant in graphic detail.
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Ms Leavitt did not take any questions from reporters.
On Thursday April 10 the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must work to bring back Mr Garcia, rejecting the White House's emergency appeal.
The court acted in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs.
US District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered the Maryland man, now being held in a notorious Salvadoran prison, to return to the United States by midnight on Monday April 7.
"The order properly requires 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," the court said in an unsigned order with no noted dissents.
It comes after a string of rulings on the court's emergency docket where the conservative majority has at least partially sided with Donald Trump amid a wave of lower court rulings that have slowed the president's sweeping agenda.
Chief Justice John Roberts had already pushed back Ms Xinis' deadline, and the justices said that her order must now be clarified to make sure it does not intrude into executive branch power over foreign affairs since Mr Abrego Garcia is being held abroad.
"The Trump administration should also be prepared to share what steps it has taken to try and get him back and what more it could potentially do," the court said.
The administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador but argued that it no longer could do anything about it.
The court's liberal justices said the administration should have hastened to correct "its egregious error" and was "plainly wrong" to suggest it could not bring him home.