Vice President JD Vance continued to bash the character of a Maryland man deported in error last month to a brutal prison in El Salvador, telling “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that he was hardly “father of the year.”
The man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside a Home Depot about six years ago while looking for work. ICE officers accused him of being part of MS-13, a violent gang, citing an accusation from a confidential informant and the fact he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, according to court documents.
“Back in 2019, an immigration judge looked at all the evidence, looked at all the data, and concluded that this allegedly innocent person that we sent to El Salvador was actually a member of an MS-13 gang,” said Vance, who added that a judge found he had “zero right” to be in the U.S.
But that’s not what happened, according to court records.
After a two-day hearing in September 2019, an immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia’s request for “withholding of removal” status, finding that he was likely to face persecution if he were to be sent back to El Salvador. He had entered the United States as an undocumented teen seeking to join his brother, a U.S. citizen, in Maryland.
Withholding of removal status means that immigration officials cannot deport an individual unless a judge rescinds that status.
Vance went on: “He had also committed some traffic violations, he had not shown up for some court dates. This is not exactly ‘father of the year’ here. This is a person that we don’t think should be in our country.”
Abrego Garcia shares a 5-year-old nonverbal son with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and had worked full time as a sheetmetal apprentice. He was picking up the boy from his grandmother’s house last month when immigration officials detained him, telling him that his status had been changed, according to court documents.
His lawyers say he does not have a criminal record in any country.
Abrego Garcia’s wife eventually recognized him in news coverage of the deportation flights President Donald Trump ordered under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a law used only three other times in history.
In a court filing, a government representative admitted Abrego Garcia’s deportation was done in error, as ICE had made reference to his withholding of removal status on internal documents.
“This was an oversight,” read a court document, which maintained that the mistake had nevertheless been made in “good faith.”
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Vance was mocked on social media earlier this week for linking to a record about Abrego Garcia that did not back up his claim that the man was a “convicted” gang member. During Abrego Garcia’s initial arrest in 2019, he was denied bail due to law enforcement’s allegation that he was a gang member. He was not convicted.
