The corporate media continues to completely misrepresent the now-viral deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia is just a “Maryland father,” according to the press. We have even crossed over into some describing him as a “U.S. man.” He is not an American man. He is an El Salvadoran man who, under everyone’s assessment, was in the United States illegally.
There is no question he was here illegally, but it is being misrepresented by the media. The story has been brought back into the spotlight because El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele visited the White House yesterday and said he would not return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
“How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States,” Bukele said after being pressed by reporters in the Oval Office. “Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”
The History
Abrego Garcia is not a U.S. citizen. He is from El Salvador. He was brought here when he was 16 by his parents. He got arrested in 2019 outside of a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, by Prince George County police officers on suspicion of being a gang member. He was 19 or 20 at that time. That incident found him in the crosshairs of law enforcement, and they handed him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because they recognized he was not here illegally.
The following day, he was served with a notice to appear and that commenced removal proceedings against him pursuant to 8 U.S. Code, Section 1229a. He was charged as “removable.” The government recognized he was here unlawfully and, on top of that, appeared to have behaved unlawfully – though they did not need the latter in order to deport him. Just the fact that you are here illegally subjects you to being deported. That’s the way it is.
Then, Abrego Garcia went through not one but two court proceedings. The first was a bond hearing on April 29, 2019, with Immigration Judge Elizabeth Kessler, who ruled the evidence showed he was a verified member of MS-13. He was afforded a hearing at which he presented evidence and so did the other side. The court first reasoned the respondent “failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that his release from custody would not pose a danger to others.”
Later that year, the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed that, finding that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 “notwithstanding the respondent’s challenges to the reliability of the Prince George’s County Police Department gang field interview sheet, the immigration judge appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent in determining that he has not demonstrated that he is not a danger to property or persons here.”
As he realized he was about to be kicked out of the country, he applied for asylum even though it was much too late. You have to apply for asylum within a year of getting to the U.S. And then, not coincidentally, he also asked for something called “withholding from removal” from El Salvador, in particular, allegedly due to threats from gangs.
On October 10, 2019, he was granted not asylum but “withholding of removal to El Salvador” after the immigration judge agreed he had established it was more likely than not that he would be persecuted by gangs in El Salvador. ICE did not appeal that grant of relief, and plaintiff Abrego Garcia was then promptly released from custody.
Fast forward to March 12, 2025, and ICE arrested Abrego Garcia in Baltimore under the Trump administration’s deportation push. He was put on a plane to El Salvador on March 15 along with other suspected gang members and is currently being held in a prison there.
That is his history. He is under an order of removal, and at that moment where the judge found he didn’t qualify for bond and was removable – just not to El Salvador – he could have been deported to any country in the world.
The Legal Battle
The only arguably wrong thing that has happened here is that when Abrego Garcia was deported, he was sent to his home country of El Salvador. But even that has two potential hooks out of it for the Trump administration:
One, if the circumstance that led to the danger for you in that country you are objecting to go into has been removed, then you can be sent back. And the gang that was allegedly persecuting him is no more in El Salvador.
Two, Stephen Miller argued yesterday that President Trump has declared MS-13 a terrorist organization and ordered all these suspected terrorists to be removed, which is a different kind of removal and may supersede the withholding of removal order.
That is something that would have to play out in court and hasn’t yet. But I did take note of Stephen Miller’s emphasis on the word “terrorist.” President Bukele used the term too. It seems to me that they are trying to tee up yet another legal argument as to why the order not to remove him to El Salvador would not be at play.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia by an April 7 deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government did not have to meet the midnight cutoff and directed the administration to “facilitate” his return.
Speaking in the Oval Office Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi made her definition of “facilitate” clear. “If they want to return him, we would facilitate it – meaning provide a plane,” she told reporters. “That’s up for El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”
That is where we are now.
The Talking Points
All of this leads me to the media, which has decided Abrego Garcia is not an illegal immigrant but a “Maryland man.” That is what the press wants us to believe. He is just this really sweet guy, who is a dad in Maryland, and the mean Trump administration is trying to kick him out. It all feels very wrong to the media.
The Media Research Center’s NewsBusters put together a great montage that shows exactly how this is being reported. Watch:
NewsBusters did a good job of showing how it is the exact same language being used on multiple networks, and it is an obvious lie because “Maryland father” is much more helpful to the narrative than the actual facts.
When some outlets do reference there was a finding that he is part of MS-13 that was upheld on appeal, the next thing they do is attack the finding with ‘Well, it wasn’t much evidence.’ Well, you weren’t there. It was appealed, and it was upheld on appeal.
These are the same people who have been lecturing us about ‘respecting the courts’ or we are going to have a ‘constitutional crisis.’ Well, the courts handled this at the time with the Prince George’s County gang unit. Now we are allowed to second guess that court but no other court that says he was removable or that the Trump administration made an error here?
The print headlines concerning this case are similarly, well, similar. A few examples:
- Politico: “El Salvador won’t return wrongly deported Maryland man”
- The New York Times: “El Salvador’s Leader Says He Won’t Return Wrongly Deported Maryland Man”
- Bloomberg: “Bukele Says Deported Maryland Man Won’t Be Returned to US”
- CBC: “El Salvador president says he won’t return U.S. man who was deported by mistake”
I mean, you wouldn’t even know he was an El Salvadoran citizen based on these.
The Due Process Spin
And then there was The Daily podcast from The New York Times interviewing Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak about whether Abrego Garcia has had due process. Now, I just laid out for you what happened to him in 2019, but take a look at the way the Times styles what happened to him:
LIPTAK: …He wasn’t afforded the merest amount of due process. And if he had been afforded that, he could have made two points. One, that he’s exempt from being deported to El Salvador. And two, that if there are other things to be said about his life, he could dispute that, put in evidence, call witnesses. He was afforded neither of those things. And in any event, even if everything was true, even if he’s a member of this gang, even if that’s criminal conduct, even if it’s criminal conduct in the United States, that still doesn’t give the government the right to deport him. Maybe it gives them the right to prosecute him in the United States. Maybe it gives them the right to send him somewhere other than El Salvador. But the one thing we know is that it’s unlawful to send him to El Salvador…
We have every right to deport every illegal in this country – every single one who hasn’t been granted asylum. We do not have to prove they committed an extra crime on top of their illegal entry. He was absolutely deportable without any finding about MS-13, but one was issued by a court and upheld on appeal. He was afforded due process – it just happened six years ago – and he was given a temporary reprieve, at least insofar as we wanted to send him back to his home country. But he absolutely could have been ejected anywhere.
And yet look at the nonsense being spun on The Daily, which is a hugely popular podcast. That is what the left is hearing every day.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,049 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.