Vice President JD Vance faced massive backlash on Tuesday after he falsely claimed that a Maryland migrant, who had court-granted “protected status,” was “a convicted MS-13 gang member.” He suggested that this man deserved to be locked up in El Salvador with no chance of appeal. Vance’s comments came after it was revealed that ICE had admitted to a major mistake: the deportation and imprisonment were an “administrative error” with no legal way to fix it. However, the Trump administration continues to insist that the migrant is tied to MS-13.
The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff broke the news Monday night: “The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it had grabbed a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador, but said that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return from the megaprison where he’s now locked up.”
Liberal podcast host Jon Favreau shared the shocking story and slammed the situation, saying, “You just admitted to accidentally sending an innocent father from Maryland to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. And you refuse to do anything about it.” He also tagged Vance, asking if he had any response.
Vance quickly replied: “My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.” He added, “My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”
But Vance’s claims were soon refuted. Former immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick explained that Vance was wrong. He wrote, “In 2019, a police informant alleged the guy was in MS-13. He spent a year in ICE detention as a result, then won his case. He’s been out for the last five years, married to a U.S. citizen, has two kids, and STILL has no criminal record at all.”
Politico’s Kyle Cheney also corrected Vance, pointing out that the court filing never called the deported man a “convicted” gang member. It simply stated that in 2019, an informant had claimed the man was part of MS-13, which was why he was denied bond. That doesn’t make him convicted.
Vance, however, doubled down. He accused Cheney of not knowing the facts, and went further to attack the migrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, claiming he had traffic tickets. Vance tweeted:
“Kyle Cheney, a ‘legal affairs reporter’ is apparently unable or unwilling to look at the facts here. In 2019, an Immigration Judge (under the first Trump administration) determined that the deported man was, in fact, a member of the MS-13 gang. He also apparently had multiple traffic violations for which he failed to appear in court. A real winner.”
Vance tried to shift the narrative, saying, “It is telling that the entire American media is going to run a propaganda operation today making you think an innocent ‘father of 3’ was apprehended by a gulag. Here are the relevant facts: 1) The man is an illegal immigrant with no right to be in our country. 2) An immigration judge determined he was a member of the MS-13 gang. 3) Because he is not a citizen, he does not get a full jury trial by peers. In other words, whatever ‘due process’ he was entitled to, he received.”
But even more legal experts weighed in, pointing out that Vance was clearly misinformed. Journalist Ronan Farrow, who also holds a JD from Yale Law, called out Vance for ignoring the law. Farrow said: “Non-citizens physically present in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to due process protections under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. It is not relevant whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia is sympathetic, or how much you believe an (apparently shaky) claim from an informant that he had gang connections. The disposition of this case, based on a judge’s review of the facts, was to grant Abrego Garcia protected legal status, preventing his deportation.”
Farrow continued, “There is no good faith legal reading in which his right to due process was respected; indeed, the government has conceded that it erred, and is essentially arguing that it doesn’t matter enough to address it. This is because they assume people will not care. But everyone in the United States should care—we all depend on these basic legal rights being predictably upheld.”
Reason’s Billy Binion also slammed Vance’s false narrative, calling it “literally fake news.” He pointed out that Vance had clearly not read the court documents. Binion explained, “Abrego Garcia is not a ‘convicted gang member.’ He’s never been charged or convicted of any crime. Police accused him of being MS-13 after stopping him and three other men for allegedly loitering outside a Home Depot, where he says he’d gone to apply for a job. It was his first and only time in state custody.”
Binion further revealed the shaky evidence the police had, explaining, “One of the other men pointed the finger at Abrego Garcia and accused him of being affiliated with part of a gang that operates in New York, where he’s never lived. That—along with the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie—is the ‘evidence’ law enforcement said showed he was in a gang.”
When Abrego Garcia’s lawyer dug into the police report, they found that Abrego Garcia wasn’t even listed in it. And the gang evaluation? The investigator who wrote it had been suspended.
Vance’s reckless statements have left him buried in criticism, with many pointing out his blatant disregard for the facts and the law.
