Border czar Tom Homan engaged in a fiery back-and-forth with CNN host Kaitlin Collins over deported MS-13 gang member Kilmer Abrego Garcia, who was sent by the administration back to his native El Salvador and placed in custody last month.
During the segment, Collins noted a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that directed the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, while also relying on an older court ruling from 2019 allowing Abrego Garcia to remain in the country for the time being to claim that the administration screwed up in removing him.
But neither argument was successful against Homan.
“I’ve seen some people look at this and say they’re worried that the stance of this administration when it comes to this is if someone is deported by accident, they have no responsibility for them once they are in the custody of a foreign government. What would you say to that?” Collins asked.
Homan responded by citing the facts of the case — that Abrego Garcia was, in fact, in the country illegally, had been identified by two separate immigration courts and a subsequent finding from El Salvador that he was a member of the MS-13 gang, and that President Trump has since designated the gang a terrorist organization.
“Well, he’s in the custody of El Salvador; he’s an El Salvadoran national,” Homan replied. “El Salvador has him in custody…The El Salvadoran president has made it clear he’s not going to release him. The DOJ is going to fight this out…The courts will decide what the next steps will be.”
Collins again brought up the 2019 court ruling, though she failed to note that several things have changed since then, including Abrego Garcia being designated a member of a terrorist group, as well as his past criminal record.
“Even though it was an immigration judge that said the one place he can’t go is El Salvador, he could have been deported anywhere else –” Collins began before being shut down by Homan.
“We keep going back and back…That was years ago, the country was different,” Homan fired back.
“That gang no longer exists in El Salvador,” he added, a reference to a now-defunct MS-13 rival cited by the judge in the 2019 case.
“He has been designated a terrorist since that time,” the border czar added. “Two different federal judges said he’s an MS-13 member. A police department said he’s an MS-13 member. ICE data shows he’s an MS-13 member. El Salvador said he’s an MS-13 member.”
“As you know, MS-13 has been designated a terrorist organization. The facts of the case have changed since that first decision,” Homan continued.
WATCH:
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to block a judge’s order requiring the U.S. government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
The Department of Justice had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to overturn the order, but the court declined to do so.
The three-judge panel consisted of Judge Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, Judge Robert King, appointed by President Bill Clinton, and Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by President Barack Obama. In the court’s opinion, Wilkinson repeatedly referred to Abrego Garcia as a “resident,” even though Abrego Garcia is not a lawful U.S. resident, Fox News reported.
“The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,” Wilkinson wrote. “This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”