The White House is digging in on its refusal to bring back a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, viewing the controversial fight as a political winner that keeps the focus on an issue of strength for President Trump.
Democrats and civil rights groups have been in an uproar about the removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing had been sent to a notorious El Salvador prison by mistake.
Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who fled that country country as a teenager to escape gang violence. He was protected from deportation by an immigration judge in 2019, a fact courts this year have underscored in calling on the administration to bring him back to the United States.
Rather than back down, the president and his aides have embraced the fight, attacking Abrego Garcia’s character in the face of questions about whether they ignored due process and court orders in quickly deporting him.
The White House’s tone toward the Abrego Garcia case has solidified this week, as officials have plainly stated he will not return to live in the United States. They have argued he entered the country illegally from El Salvador, and therefore would be sent back to his home country one way or another.
Administration officials also have stepped up their characterizations of Abrego Garcia as a danger to society.
They’ve portrayed him as a violent gang member, despite denials from his family that he was part of MS-13 and a conflicting court record.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tweeted out 2021 court filings that showed Abrego Garcia’s wife seeking a restraining order against him. Maryland court records show the complaint was dismissed after Abrego Garcia’s wife did not show up in court.
Officials point to a few reasons why administration officials are embracing the aggressive strategy.
The White House’s default mode is to go on offense, officials said, and Trump has said he views immigration as the most important issue that put him back in the White House, even more so than the economy.
A poll published last month from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found roughly 50 percent of voters approved of Trump’s approach to immigration, better than the marks he received on the economy in the same poll.
His aides have used Abrego Garcia’s deportation to highlight their efforts to remove criminals who entered the country illegally and to frame Democrats as weak on immigration and crime. On Wednesday, they hit Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who traveled to El Salvador in a bid to meet with Abrego Garcia at the notorious prison where he is being held.
“The rule of thumb here is whenever they’re leaning in on immigration they’re winning, or they want to change the message,” said one Trump ally.
Team Trump may prefer the talk about immigration to talk about the economy right now.
The focus on Abrego Garcia came as markets still reeling from Trump’s tariff regime tumbled again Wednesday on comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warning of a slowing economy and inflation.
Polls have suggested the economy is become a softer issue for Trump, while GOP senators have acknowledged his tariffs means Trump, and not former President Biden, now owns the economy.
The White House has also attempted to use Abrego Garcia’s case to highlight instances of crimes committed by other migrants who entered the country illegally that have no connection to Abrego Garcia.
On Wednesday, the administration blasted out cases of several other individuals who entered the country illegally who were arrested in Maryland in recent weeks. Those other cases had no direct connection to Abrego Garcia.
The White House called a previously unscheduled press briefing Wednesday where they invited Patty Morin, the mother of a Maryland woman who was killed by a man from El Salvador who entered the country illegally and had no connection to Abrego Garcia.
The effort was both an attack on the media and Van Hollen, Morin’s home-state senator.
Patty Morin shared graphic details of her daughter’s death. Her killer was found guilty earlier this week.
“This is about protecting our children. It’s more than just politics or votes,” Morin said.
The objective, sources close to the administration argued, is to remind the public of the White House’s broader success cracking down on immigration and fulfilling its campaign promises.
Those sources also argued that Democrats have played into the White House’s hands by so aggressively defending Abrego Garcia and calling for his return.
Exhibit A is Van Hollen. While his effort to meet with Abrego Garcia was rebuffed, he used a press conference there to refute multiple claims from the Trump administration about Abrego Garcia’s case.
“It’s appalling and sad that Sen. Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, claiming Democrats “still refuse to accept the will of the American people.”
But that doesn’t mean that the White House’s approach to Abrego Garcia’s case is without political risks.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) faced constituents at a town hall on Tuesday who vented their anger about Abrego Garcia’s case.
Van Hollen said in a press conference on Wednesday that he would not be the last member of Congress to visit El Salvador to keep on spotlight on the Trump administration’s handling of the case.
In a sign that Democrats could chip away at support for the White House and its policies, a YouGov poll published this week found 44 percent of respondents said the Trump administration disobeyed court orders when deporting immigrants. Twenty-seven percent said the administration had not disobeyed court orders, while 30 percent said they were not sure.
Even some Republicans have expressed unease with the way the administration has essentially brushed off a Supreme Court order calling for the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
“I think what they ought to do is probably follow the judge’s order and the Supreme Court decision, which used the word facilitate. Also in that opinion…were the words accidental, mistake and illegal. I mean, those are not three good words you want in a Supreme Court decision,” former federal prosecutor and congressman Trey Gowdy said on Fox News.
“Appeal the removal order,” Gowdy added. “But what we can’t have is any executive disobeying or not following a judge’s decision, even if you disagree with it.”
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