Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday that the Maryland man deported to an El Salvadoran prison in error is a member of MS-13 and a “very dangerous individual.”
The issue of the mistake is where he should have been sent, not if he should have been sent at all.
An “administrative error” allegedly led Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be sent to CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to have him returned, but the Department of Justice argued that the judge does not have the authority to do so.
Noem maintained that Garcia is “definitely a gang member” and a “very dangerous individual.”
“There was an administrative decision that was made that was inaccurate at the time, based on a judge's order, for where this individual could go. But he was a gang member, violent criminal, definitely a member of one of these terrorist organizations and did not belong in this country and needed to face consequences,” Noem told Newsmax. “So it wasn't a question on his history and if he was dangerous and he shouldn't be in the United States; it was where should he go?”
When asked how DHS can ensure that anyone sent to CECOT are terrorists, Noem replied that “[W]e have intelligence capabilities within the Department of Homeland Security and partnered with many other federal and local agencies to make sure that these individuals that went to this facility were terrorists. They were members of MS-13 and of TdA, and that they are in the 18th Street gang as other individuals they showed us that were there.”
Remarking on her visit to the prison, Noem said that “[I]t was interesting. They took the time to as well to show me on each of these individuals how they were marked, their tattoos, how you identify a gang member, how they show how many people they have killed and different markings for what they have done that they're proud of to be initiated into these organizations, and then really what their history has been like.”
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