JD Vance torches media, Dems' 'disgraceful set of priorities' on deportation of accused MS-13 gang member
Vice President JD Vance called out Democrats and the mainstream media for what he called a "disgraceful set of priorities," citing their outrage over the Trump administration deporting illegal immigrants like alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
"We do not ask permission from far-left Democrats before we deport illegal immigrants. We do the American people's business," the vice president said in an exclusive "Fox & Friends" interview on Thursday.
"This is such a weird, mistaken placement of priorities… 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."
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Sitting down with co-host Lawrence Jones, the vice president maintained that Abrego Garcia, who was deported to an El Salvador megaprison despite reportedly having protected status, is a member of the violent MS-13 gang despite outlets claiming the contrary.
"Back in 2019, an immigration judge looked at all the evidence, looked at 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. 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," Vance said.
"Whatever the argument is, whatever the justification is…. Not even the crazy left-wing media criticized the idea that we could deport this person. They just took issue with the reasoning for why we deported this person."
Vance said even Democrats and left-wing media voices never disputed Abrego Garcia was an "illegal alien" and "broke the laws" to enter the U.S.
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"This [is] unquestionably a person an immigration judge had found had zero right to be in the United States of America," he added.
The White House remained firm in their decision to deport Abrego Garcia following a report from The Atlantic that federal attorneys said that there was an "administrative error" in bringing him to CECOT men’s prison in El Salvador.
Court filings also show Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. in 2011 at the age of 16 after fleeing gang threats in El Salvador, the outlet reported.
Eight years later, a judge granted him a form of protected status known as "withholding of removal" after finding that he would likely be a target of Salvadoran gangs if deported to his native country.
News of his deportation ignited outrage among Democrats, leaving Vance to blast the group for allegedly showing more sympathy toward illegal immigrants than for murdered U.S. citizens like Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and Texas native Jocelyn Nungaray.
The vice president also discussed tariff concerns and rumors that Elon Musk could soon be departing DOGE, calling reports of the latter "total fake news."
Fox News' Landon Mion and Cameron Arcand contributed to this report.