The Abrego Garcia Saga Is a Litmus Test For Media Figures

(Pool via AP)

As President Donald Trump flirts with defying a Supreme Court order to help return a migrant that his administration admitted it deported and indefinitely imprisoned in El Salvador by “error,” the media is faced with one of its easiest litmus tests in years: does due process and the rule of law matter in America?

Many are failing.

While there are some competing claims being batted around about the case, several appalling facts about it are undeniable. The man in question, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was arrested and detained by U.S. authorities, accused of being an MS-13 gang member, and quickly shipped off to El Salvador for indefinite imprisonment without any kind of hearing or due process. Furthermore, we know that the U.S. government entered into a contract with the government of El Salvador and is paying $6 million a year to keep those prisoners locked up – many of whom investigative journalists found had no known criminal record.

The judge who initially ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. found the evidence for him being a gang member to be severely lacking and wrote about it in her ruling. “The ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived,” Judge Paula Xinis wrote, in a decision held up by the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has since claimed that two courts ruled he was a gang member, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, without citing any specific evidence, called him an “alleged sex trafficker.”

The New York Times called Bondi’s claims “misleading,” explaining: “To be clear, Mr. Abrego Garcia has never been charged with — let alone convicted of — being a member of the gang. But during his deportation proceedings, some evidence was introduced that he belonged to MS-13, and judges decided it was enough to keep him in custody while the matter was resolved.”

He was later released by that judge who found no evidence of criminal activity and granted him protective status in the U.S., meaning he could be deported, but not sent back to El Salvador out of fear for his safety from gang violence.

Meanwhile, Trump officials have gone on to wildly claim that only El Salvador has the power to release Abrego Garcia from prison, despite the fact that they are paying for his incarceration. Bondi, however, did pay lip service to the Supreme Court and said the U.S. would fly him back if El Salvador decided to release him, which its leader explicitly rejected doing in the Oval Office — calling Gracia a “terrorist.”

In the past several weeks, as the story has slowly bubbled to the surface, many pro-Trump voices in the media have opted to simply omit its key elements – primarily that Abrego Garcia has been imprisoned, not just deported. Indeed, those in the media who bat away or ignore legitimate concerns over the total lack of due process afforded him are telling on themselves.

Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld — who farcically describes himself as a libertarian — this week defended the Trump administration’s total disregard for due process. “The last what 8 days, 7 days, has been about one person, one person,” he said. “I don’t even know his name. I don’t care. I don’t care. If he’s illegal, he’s gotta go. We are not responsible for the faulty process that allowed him to be here before. Is he a terrorist? Is he not a terrorist? I don’t care.”

Gutfeld went on to blame President Joe Biden and argue that Trump’s solution is a necessary fix, adding, “At worst, a guy gets sent to a country he doesn’t want to go to. You know what? I can live with that.”

Of course, Abrega Garcia was not simply deported — he was imprisoned, indefinitely, as Gutfeld’s co-host pointed out.

“Into a prison camp!? Not just out into the wild,” replied Jessica Tarlov.

“Look, I’m not — I’m sorry, Jessica, I understand your concern, but I refuse to care about one person who is an illegal alien,” Gutfeld replied.

Trump has deemed MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to quickly remove anyone it deems a danger to the country. In previous Supreme Court rulings on the deportations, the court said Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act, but ruled, “detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal.” Adding that “notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief.”

While critics cry foul and warn of a constitution crisis, Vice President JD Vance highlighted the administration’s media strategy on Tuesday, writing, “The entire American media and left wing industrial complex has decided the most important issue today is that the Trump admin deported an MS-13 gang member (and illegal alien).”

Leavitt and Bondi followed suit by pushing out further claims tying Abrego Garcia to MS-13 and highlighting the fact that Abrego Garcia’s wife, a U.S. citizen, once accused him of domestic abuse and sought a restraining order. Outlets like the Daily Caller quickly picked up the story and ran headlines like: “‘Leaving Me Bleeding’: Illegal Migrant Dems Want Back In US Was Accused Of Domestic Abuse By Wife.” Abrego Garcia’s wife is standing behind him and suing the Trump administration for his return.

On Wednesday, Leavitt also brought in Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant to speak from the White House podium. Morin recalled the horrific crime in graphic detail and went on to attack Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who traveled earlier in the day to El Salvador to try to speak to Abrego Garcia, but was denied access.

Pro-Trump influencer Charlie Kirk responded to Patty Morin’s remarks, “This is FULL gut-wrenching speech Angel Mom Patty Morin just gave to the press. The entire media is obsessed with the fate of a foreign criminal gang member who broke into this country and then tried lying in order to stay here. Meanwhile, they have never cared about women like Rachel Morin.”

Of course, the problem here is that the two issues are largely unrelated – Rachel Morin’s murderer had his day in court and was rightly punished, but Abrego Garcia did not. Had Abrego Garcia simply been deported by an immigration judge or detained in the U.S. awaiting deportation, he would never have become a story, let alone the focus of a Supreme Court case. Conducting a public trial after the fact about Abrego Garcia’s character and past behavior, however abhorrent it may or may not be, is exactly why we have due process, jury trials, and the presumption of innocence in the first place.

Glenn Greenwald, who has taken a pro-MAGA turn in recent years, explained the point well, noting, “Ordinary deportations – sending someone back to their country of origin – are very quick and easy: it’s done by a deportation “court” inside DOJ. That’s radically different than sending people to life in prison in a third country they have nothing to do with, based on allegations of criminality that are never proven. Due process is raised only with that.”

“I don’t defend due process because I love ‘child rapists & drug dealers.’ I defend it because the government often gets things wrong,” Reason’s Billy Binion added on X this week while debating the issue.

The Abrego Garcia case is an easy litmus test that distinguishes those who uphold key values within the U.S. Constitution, like separation of powers and due process – which, yes, is even afforded to those in the country illegally. While expressing outrage over the murder of Rachel Morin is absolutely legitimate and understandable, that outrage has little to do with the Abrego Garcia case, which is now fundamentally about rule of law in the U.S. Those in the media who skip over the key elements of the case most likely do so intentionally and it should serve as a glaring red flag: they will hold up the Constitution only when convenient. The omissions are made all the more shocking coming from the right, which has long championed law and order above all else and warned of the slippery slope of government overreach.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.