White House adviser Stephen Miller snapped at Fox News host Bill Hemmer’s framing of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of a deported Maryland man indefinitely imprisoned in El Salvador, as he tried to argue the administration “won.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker who has resided in the U.S. for 14 years, was arrested in Baltimore on March 12 after picking up his five-year-old son.
Authorities had previously accused him of having MS-13 gang ties, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) later admitted in court that he was removed due to an “administrative error.” Still, the Trump administration has argued it has no legal obligation to bring him back.
In a court brief filed Sunday, Department of Justice attorneys claimed the court lacks authority to compel the president or federal agencies to act, citing executive powers over foreign policy. Abrego Garcia’s wife and three children are U.S. citizens, and his attorneys had asked the court to intervene to reunite the family.
On Monday, as Miller was brought on air, America’s Newsroom host Hemmer outlined the case, reporting Abrego Garcia was “mistakenly” deported, only to be called out immediately by the Trump official for, in his view, getting it “all wrong.”
Miller began:
I want to correct that. I hate to do it, Bill. I have to correct you on everything you said. It was all wrong.First, we won the
Supreme Court case, clearly, 9-0. A District Court judge said unconscionably the president and his administration have to go into El Salvador and extradite one of their citizens. That would be kidnapping. We have to kidnap an El Salvador citizen against the will of his government and fly him back to America. An unimaginable invasion of El Salvador.
He continued to insist that the administration had won the case:
We appealed to the Supreme Court and said clearly no District Court can compel the president to exercise his Article II foreign powers in any way whatsoever. DOJ called me after the Supreme Court ruling and said: ‘It is amazing we won the case 9-0, we are in excellent standing here.’It has been portrayed wrong for 72-hours in the media. They said the most a court can ever compel you to do is facilitate return, which means if El Salvador voluntarily sends him back we wouldn’t block him in the airport, we would put him back in ICE detention and then he would be deported back to El Salvador or somewhere else. The Supreme Court said that’s the most the government can be expected to do. So, we won the case. The misreporting on this has been atrocious.
As Hemmer tried to interrupt Miller, the aide spoke over him, arguing the administration was right to deport Abrego Garcia and claiming the man was not “mistakenly” deported – an apparent contradiction to the administration’s own
acknowledgement.
The idea that Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported, Miller insisted, was the work of a since-fired Justice Department employee who was a Democrat:
He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador. He was an illegal alien from El Salvador. In 2019 he was ordered deported. He has a final removal order from the United States. These are things that no one disputes. Where is he from? El Salvador. A resident and citizen of? El Salvador. Is he here illegally? Yes. Does he have a deportation order? Yes.A DOJ Lawyer who has been relieved of duty, a saboteur, a Democrat put into a filing, incorrectly, that this was a mistaken removal. It was not. It was the right person sent to the right place.
Unprompted, Miller dismissed counterarguments that Abrego Garcia could be subject to a holding order since “he is in MS-13” and someone who is “a member of a foreign terrorist organization” cannot have a withholding order.
Hemmer finally cut in: “I want to ask you a question. Are you convinced he is still a member of MS-13? Your original charge.”
“Yes. But here is the thing, Bill. Yes, not only am I convinced of it, not only is El Salvador convinced of it,” Miller replied before shouting: “He is an illegal alien from El Salvador with a deportation order! So, his only options in life, Bill, his only options in life, are to be deported to El Salvador or to be deported to
some other country. That’s it. He has a deportation order.”
Flipping the page on Hemmer, Miller demanded: “So Bill, you tell me what country should we deport him to? Tell me? Tell me, please, tell me.”
Watch above via Fox News.
