Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) issued his own criticisms of the Trump administration when it came to the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia had a “withholding of removal” order that Democratic lawmakers chalked up to disrupting due process. The administration has said it was following through on an active deportation order that was active even when Abrego Garcia received his new status.
Kennedy agreed that the Salvadorian immigrant who has lived in the U.S. since 2011 deserved a hearing before his deportation, but also asserted that he had undergone due process as he met with 17 judges during the course of challenging his status.
“[T]his was a screwup in my opinion. The administration won’t admit it, but this was a screwup,” Kennedy said on Meet the Press on Sunday. “I understand why the administration is bowed up and we admitted some mistake because if they do, they’ll have their throats torn out, but it was a screwup. I don’t see any pattern here. I’ve been listening to my Democratic friends say, I don’t know, since God was a child, that Trump is a threat to democracy. I don’t see any pattern here.”
Despite Kennedy’s disagreement with the manner in which Abrego Garcia was deported, according to the senator, the Salvadorian native is “never” coming back to the U.S. due to President Nayib Bukele’s stance against returning him.
When it came to President Donald Trump’s further threats to send “homegrown criminals” to foreign prisons, Kennedy also disagreed. The senator said such a punishment “should not be considered appropriate or moral.”
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found Trump administration officials in criminal contempt Wednesday, almost a month after he issued a ruling prohibiting deportation flights while overseeing a case involving five immigrants with active deportation orders. The Trump administration went through with the deportations, as planes were already airborne when Boasberg’s ruling came out. Flights were paused in the weeks that followed, but have since continued.
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.
