Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi doubled down on the Trump administration’s resolution to deport alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to an El Salvadoran megaprison final month — insisting in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that ICE members have testified that the previous Maryland resident is a member of the felony gang, regardless of arguments on the contrary.
“His lawyers have argued he should be here because he was studying to be an electrician… let me give you a comparison,” she stated.
The Trump official steered right into a dialogue about violent gang members apprehended in Florida lately. One, she stated, was charged with stabbing a person over 100 instances as part of their gang initiation.
One other was arrested in Fort Lauderdale and a 3rd, who fled to Minnesota, was apprehended by regulation enforcement at the side of the FBI and border patrol, she added.
“Then the other… was a drywall hanger in The Villages in Florida. So, the argument that, because these people are living among us, these illegal aliens from El Salvador, means they’re not part of a gang… that’s how they’re hiding. That’s how they’re succeeding…”
U.S. Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi speaks throughout a information convention on the Division of Justice Constructing on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker)
“We have to rely on what ICE says,” she continued. “We have to rely on what Homeland Security says. They’re our clients, and I firmly believe in the work they are doing, and we’re going to make America safe again. That was President Trump’s directive to all of us.”
Host Shannon Bream adopted up with questioning about Abrego Garcia’s alleged felony exercise, noting that he had by no means been charged or convicted of any violent crimes. She requested, upon his return, if he might face such prices.
“The best thing to do is to get these people out of our country, and when that first plane left and landed in El Salvador, there were 261 reasons why Americans were safer. We have to look out for the safety of our country, first and foremost, and that is Donald Trump‘s directive, and we’re gonna continue to do that,” she replied.
JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON
This undated photograph offered by Murray Osorio PLLC exhibits Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio PLLC by way of AP)
Different members of the Trump administration equally defended the deportation, together with Vice President JD Vance, who instructed “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones final Thursday that Democrats and members of the media have been outraged over Abrego Garcia’s deportation however not equally upset by Americans murdered by unlawful immigrant gang members have a “mistaken placement of priorities.”
The White Home has remained agency in its resolution to deport Abrego Garcia following a report from The Atlantic that federal attorneys stated that there was an “administrative error” in bringing him to CECOT males’s jail in El Salvador.
Court docket filings additionally present Abrego Garcia got here to the U.S. in 2011 on the age of 16 after fleeing gang threats in El Salvador, the outlet reported.
Eight years later, a decide granted Abrego Garcia a type of protected standing often called “withholding of removal” after discovering that he would possible be a goal of Salvadoran gangs if deported to his native nation.
In a ruling on Friday, U.S. Federal District Decide Paula Xinis stated that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been illegally deported to El Salvador and stated he should be returned to the USA by Monday earlier than midnight.
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The Trump administration has acknowledged Garcia’s elimination was an “administrative error,” however has additionally defended it.
“This individual is an illegal criminal who broke our nation’s immigration laws. He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human trafficking,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a briefing on Tuesday.
Fox Information’ Brie Stimson and Invoice Mears contributed to this report.
