‘Osama Bin Laden Was Also a Father’: Trump Spokesperson Attacks Maryland Dad DHS Sent to Salvadoran Prison

A Department of Homeland Security official defended President Donald Trump’s defiance of multiple court decisions ordering it to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. In particular, she took exception to the description of him as a “Maryland father” and invoked Osama bin Laden to make her point.

Tricia McLaughlin appeared on Monday’s edition of The Will Cain Show, where she doubled down on the administration’s attacks on the deportee.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was deported to El Salvador in what a lawyer for the Trump administration said was the result of an “administrative error.” However, other Trump officials have disputed this and claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. Though he has no criminal record, he is being incarcerated in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a District court ruling that ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return. Trump is refusing to do so, and said the matter is up to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who – with Trump’s approval – is refusing to return Abrego Garcia.

“I think this illegal alien is exactly where he belongs – home in El Salvador,” McLaughlin said. “He was in our country illegally. He’s from El Salvador, was born in El Salvador, and oh, the media forgot to mention he is an MS-13 gang member. The media would love for you to believe this is a media darling and that’s just a Maryland father. Well, Osama bin Laden was also a father. And yet, he wasn’t a good guy and they actually are both terrorists.”

Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore last month after leaving his job as a sheet metal worker to pick up his five-year-old son. He has two other children.