‘Not Exactly Father of the Year’: JD Vance Cites ‘Traffic Violations’ to Help Justify Wrongly Imprisoning Migrant In El Salvador
Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones sat down with Vice President JD Vance on Thursday morning for a lengthy discussion on various topics, and at one point asked him about a migrant that ICE admitted was deported and imprisoned indefinitely in El Salvador as a result of an “administrative error.”
“Can I get you to put your lawyer hat on for a second, because they’re pointing to one of these cases of a gentleman that they said should not have been deported from El Salvador,” Jones began, adding:
They said he was not connected to MS-13. What would you tell them about that case? Because they’re saying that this is a person that was a great member of society. You’ve looked at the court records. You’ve talked to the men and women on the ground. And what can you tell us about that situation?
“Well, there have been a few cases out there where the Democrats and the media say, ‘Oh, this person was just an innocent father of three.’ And then you find out, for example, I think this is the case that you’re talking about. Back in 2019, an immigration judge looked at all the evidence, looked at all the data, and concluded that this allegedly innocent person that we sent to El Salvador was actually a member of an MS-13 gang. He had also committed some traffic violations,” Vance replied.
Vance had claimed earlier in the week as well that the migrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was a “convicted” gang member based on the court filing. Former immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick joined a chorus of voices quickly refuting Vance’s claim, arguing, “Vance is badly wrong here. 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.”
A judge granted Abrego Garcia “protected status” in the U.S. as his citizenship application was processed, meaning he could not be sent back to El Salvador for fear of retribution. The Trump administration continues to claim he has ties to MS-13.
Vance continued his answer to Jones, saying, “He had not shown up for some court dates. This is not exactly ‘Father of the Year’ here. This is a person that we don’t think should be in our country. Here’s the most important point, though, Lawrence, is whatever the argument is, whatever the justification is, no one doubts, not even the crazy left-wing media, criticized the idea that we could deport this person.”
Vance continued, omitting the fact that Abrego Garcia was not simply deported, but has also been jailed in a notoriously violent gang prison, from which the U.S. cannot get him out:
They just took issue with the reasoning for why we deported this person. This was unquestionably an illegal alien. This was, unquestionably, a person who broke the laws to get into our country, This is unquestionably a person an immigration judge had found had zero right to be in the United States of America.
We do not ask permission from far-left Democrats before we deport illegal immigrants. We do the American people’s business, and again, for the American who are watching, this is such a weird, mistaken placement of priorities. We need to make our country stronger. We need to create jobs. We need to make our streets safer. What is it about Congressional Democrats that get more angry at deporting violent gang members than they do at the victims of those violent gang members? I don’t even understand where they’re coming from. They’ve gone off the deep end, and they’ve got to come back to reality.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
