Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Democratic senators, including Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Chris Murphy, sparred over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador.
“We have a limited amount of time. I just asked you, Madam Secretary, whether or not you or the Department of Homeland Security are taking any action to facilitate the 9-0 Supreme Court decision to facilitate his return. This is a very simple question. Are you taking any action to facilitate his return, or are you not?” Van Hollen asked at the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing.
“This administration is following and complying with all federal court orders,” Noem replied.
“So you are so because the court ordered that you facilitate his return. So you are facilitating his return?”
“Sir. Senator, thank you for the question. But what I would tell you is that we are following court orders. I’m certain that your advocacy for a known terrorist is alarming,” she fired back.
“Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador and should never have been in this country and will not be coming back to this country,” Noem told Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in a heated exchange at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday morning.
“There is no scenario where an Abrego Garcia will be in the United States again. If he were to come back, we would immediately deport him again because he is a terrorist. He’s a human smuggler, and he is a wife-beater,” she continued.
Murphy had asked the secretary if she had “reached out to your counterpart in El Salvador to facilitate Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release.”
“Does the Supreme Court decision not require you to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia?” Murphy later asked.
“The Trump administration is complying with all court orders and judges’ orders,” she replied.
Abrego Garcia, 29, is a Salvadoran illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member who was living in Maryland until he was deported to the high-security Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) in his home country during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Though many Democrats, including Maryland’s Van Hollen, claim that Abrego Garcia is an innocent man who was “wrongly deported,” the administration has pointed to considerable evidence that he is a member of the infamous MS-13 gang.
In recent weeks, two protective orders suggested that he was abusive to his wife, who is now advocating for his release. In addition, the Tennessee Highway Patrol released body camera footage of its 2022 encounter with him, where state troopers suspected he was involved in human trafficking.
TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES
Several Democrats have argued that he was not given proper due process and that the evidence that he is a member of MS-13, which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration, is not sufficient to justify his removal.
Noem faced mixed reactions of praise and intense criticism at the hearing on Thursday, as Republicans applauded the department’s efforts on illegal immigration, whereas Democrats raised concerns about spending and legal processes.
Fox News’ Peter Pinedo, Emma Colton and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
