Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) suggested that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the start of further retaliation from the Trump administration.
The comment came as an attempt to defend Abrego Garcia, a man the Department of Justice has classified as an MS-13 member and deported to his home country of El Salvador. Democrats have pointed to a lack of paperwork as evidence that he was mistakenly deported. The Trump administration and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have said Abrego Garcia will remain in El Salvador’s custody.
“Because if they can do it to them, if they can snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it’s going to be people of color and vulnerable communities that are next in line,” MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend told Ivey on The Weekend on Saturday.
“I think that’s right. And that’s certainly part of why the African American community is so strongly behind the supporting [of] Kilmar,” Ivey said.
“We were like, we are not for this,” Sanders-Townsend said.
“Yeah. Because, as you just said, if they’re going to whisk them away, what are they going to do with us?” Ivey said.
This television segment followed Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) suggesting the same thing when he said President Donald Trump could imprison anyone by labeling them “a non-citizen gang member.” Torres tried to make a case that the administration’s subversion of Abrego Garcia’s “withholding of removal” order could be chalked up to disrupting due process. The administration has said it was following through on an active deportation order.
DHS PUBLICLY RELEASES RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA TO SHOW ‘HISTORY OF VIOLENCE’
Even after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) visited Abrego Garcia in what appeared to be a restaurant, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele confirmed that the alleged MS-13 member was “returned back to CECOT.” It took the senator several attempts to meet Abrego Garcia because the Salvadorian government wasn’t initially cooperative.
Trump called Van Hollen a “fool” for using the Senate recess to go to El Salvador to visit the deported immigrant in his home country.
