Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled down on the Trump administration’s decision to deport alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to an El Salvadoran megaprison last month — insisting in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that ICE members have testified that the former Maryland resident is a member of the criminal gang, despite arguments to the contrary.
“His lawyers have argued he should be here because he was studying to be an electrician… let me give you a comparison,” she said.
The Trump official steered into a discussion about violent gang members apprehended in Florida recently. One, she said, was charged with stabbing an individual over a hundred times as a part of their gang initiation.
Another was arrested in Fort Lauderdale and a third, who fled to Minnesota, was apprehended by law enforcement in conjunction with the FBI and border patrol, she added.
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“Then the other… was a drywall hanger in The Villages in Florida. So, the argument that, because these people are living among us, these illegal aliens from El Salvador, means they’re not part of a gang… that’s how they’re hiding. That’s how they’re succeeding…”
“We have to rely on what ICE says,” she continued. “We have to rely on what Homeland Security says. They’re our clients, and I firmly believe in the work they are doing, and we’re going to make America safe again. That was President Trump’s directive to all of us.”
Host Shannon Bream followed up with questioning about Abrego Garcia’s alleged criminal activity, noting that he had never been charged or convicted of any violent crimes. She asked, upon his return, if he could face such charges.
“The best thing to do is to get these people out of our country, and when that first plane left and landed in El Salvador, there were 261 reasons why Americans were safer. We have to look out for the safety of our country, first and foremost, and that is Donald Trump’s directive, and we’re gonna continue to do that,” she replied.
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Other members of the Trump administration similarly defended the deportation, including Vice President JD Vance, who told “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones last Thursday that Democrats and members of the media were outraged over Abrego Garcia’s deportation but not equally upset by American citizens murdered by illegal immigrant gang members have a “mistaken placement of priorities.”
The White House has remained firm in its decision to deport Abrego Garcia following a report from The Atlantic that federal attorneys said that there was an “administrative error” in bringing him to CECOT men’s prison in El Salvador.
Court filings also show Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. in 2011 at the age of 16 after fleeing gang threats in El Salvador, the outlet reported.
Eight years later, a judge granted Abrego Garcia a form of protected status known as “withholding of removal” after finding that he would likely be a target of Salvadoran gangs if deported to his native country.
In a ruling on Friday, U.S. Federal District Judge Paula Xinis said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been illegally deported to El Salvador and said he must be returned to the United States by Monday before midnight.
The Trump administration has acknowledged Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error,” but has also defended it.
“This individual is an illegal criminal who broke our nation’s immigration laws. He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human trafficking,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing on Tuesday.
Fox News’ Brie Stimson and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
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