Trump Border Czar Rejects Due Process Argument in Abrego Garcia Case: ‘He Got More Due Process Than Laken Riley Got’

U.S. border czar Tom Homan ripped into the due process argument in the deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia Wednesday, ranting outside the White House that “he got more due process than Laken Riley.”

Homan spoke out as a reporter asked him for a response to the judge accusing the Trump administration of bad faith and willful non-compliance in the Abrego Garcia case.

“We removed an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, wife-beater, designated terrorist from the United States,” Homan began. “He’s home.”

He also mentioned the lack of due process in the case, which has been a focus of critics concerned that Abrego Garcia has been indefinitely imprisoned in El Salvador without ever seeing a courtroom.

“He’s a citizen of El Salvador, a native of El Salvador who had due process despite what you’re hearing, been ordered removed by two separate immigration judges,” Homan claimed. Notably, one of those judges granted Agrego Garcia protective status in the U.S. — meaning he legally could not be deported back to El Salvador out of fear for his safety.

He added, “He got more due process than Laken Riley got.”

Abrego Garcia was rounded up and deported to El Salvador last month in a sweep of illegal migrants by the Trump administration, a move that DOJ and ICE officials later admitted was the result of an administrative error.

In a Fox News interview earlier this week, however, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to admit Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake.

Riley was a Georgia nursing student who was savagely murdered while jogging near the University of Georgia in February 2024.

Her killer, Venezuelan migrant José Ibarra, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in November for the murder.

Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally, had declined his right to a jury trial. Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard presided over the case, finding Ibarra guilty on all 10 charges against him, including malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing a person making an emergency call, tampering with evidence, and violating Georgia’s peeping Tom statute. The prosecution did not seek the death penalty in this case.

Read the full exchange here:

REPORTER: In the Abrego Garcia case, what is your response to accusing the administration of bad faith and willful noncompliance?

TOM HOMAN: Bad faith… We removed an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, wife-beater, designated terrorist from the United States. He’s home. He’s a citizen of El Salvador, a native of El Salvador who had due process despite what you’re hearing, been ordered removed by two separate immigration judges.

The best that could happen for him if he actually came back to the United States, he would be detained and removed again because he has an ordered deportation and what people don’t talk about the withholding order they keep saying was a mistake or oversight was issued years ago under different circumstances.

The gang he was afraid would attack him no longer exists. The country of El Salvador is a much safer country because of the actions of President Bukele. I don’t think any corps can order another nation, a sovereign nation to take a citizen national to their country and their custody and give them back to the US. Again, I’m not an attorney.

I’ll let DOJ argue this in court, but I think we removed a public safety threat, gang member, designated terrorist from the United States who have been ordered deported twice by a federal judge. I think he got his, I got plenty of due process. He got more due process than Laken Riley got.

REPORTER: The Supreme Court says the administration must facilitate his return.

HOMAN: OK…

REPORTER: Will they facilitate his return?

HOMAN: I’m not … I leave that to the Department of Justice and the State Department. I think, I stand by, we did the right thing for the safety and security of this country. We removed a terrorist. Just like the two planeloads. All of a sudden, everyone said we violated a court order. These are two planeloads of terrorists.

Again, I’m not litigating the case. I’m not an attorney. I’ll let DOJ handle it. But again, I think we’re keeping President Trump’s promise to the American people who voted him into office on the No. 1 issue — secure the border and remove public safety threats and national security threats. That’s what we keep doing. I find it, I find it incredible that there’s all this push for more and more and more.

Due process, more process for these designated terrorists when in fact no one asked for due process when they crossed the border. No one asked for vetting when they crossed the border. Where was all the media? We were a lot of you all folks, when 10.5 million people came to the border and you’re silent? Where were a lot of these folks when they had 600% increase in trafficking in women and children? Where was everybody had a quarter million Americans dying from fentanyl that come that open border? Where was all the anger then? Where was all the press then?

But now, they enter the country illegally, against legal process and now they demand legal process. It’s just ridiculous how this has come full circle, and I think President Trump is doing the right thing. This country is much safer today. I looked at the numbers today. We’re about 68,000 illegal aliens arrested in the interior United States, a hell of a lot more in Biden administration ever done, ever thought of doing.

And a vast majority being criminal alien threats. This country is a lot safer. New York City is a lot safer today because of the operations we did up there, arresting public safety threats and national security threats. Every time we arrest one of these people, remove them, the country gets that much safer. President Trump secured the border in a matter of seven weeks. Today, as I’m talking to you, we have the most secure border in the history of this nation.

Data proves it. He did in seven weeks what the Biden administration couldn’t or wouldn’t do in 4 years. This president is keeping his promise to American people. I’m happy. I walk in here every day working for the greatest president in my lifetime because I spent over 40 years doing immigration enforcement and border security. We’ve never been where we’re at right now, the most secure border in history of this nation right now.

Lives are being saved every day. Migrant lives under Joe Biden. Over 4,000 illegal aliens died making this journey to the United States. How is that humane? That’s a historic record. And again, a quarter of a million Americans died from fentanyl. How is that humane? They want to say our administration is inhumane. We’re not given due process. We’re saving lives by the thousands every day. The wall, everybody’s screaming, yelling about the wall going up. Every place we build a border barrier, illegal immigration went down, illegal drug flow went down.

But you know, no one talks about? The wall saves lives. Women and children can’t get over that wall, so that means they’re going to a place where there’s not a wall. And what’s waiting on them? The men and women on the Border Patrol who’s going to deal with those health issues and the humanitarian crisis.

Walls save lives. The secure borders saves lives. President Trump is saving thousands of lives every day by securing that border, and we’re going to continue despite what the district court says maybe we can maybe we got to hold off on some of the deportation operations we’re doing, but it’s not going to stop us from seeking these people out, arresting them and taking them off the streets of the United States while we wait for the courts to decide, you know, about the Alien Enemies Act. these other things we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. We’re going to arrest these public safety threats every single day 24/7 across this country. That will not stop.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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