PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Vice President J.D. Vance is slamming corporate media outlets—including The Atlantic and POLITICO—for misrepresenting the immigration case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national and MS-13 gang member deported from the U.S.
📍Where & When: The case dates back to a 2019 immigration ruling under the Trump administration. The media coverage and political backlash surfaced in March–April 2025.
🧑⚖️Who’s Involved:
– Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Determined by a federal immigration judge to be a member of MS-13 and a danger to the community.
– J.D. Vance: Vice President, refuting media claims and citing court documents.
– Jon Favreau: Former Obama speechwriter, accused Trump team of sending an “innocent father” to a “torture dungeon.”
– Kyle Cheney: POLITICO reporter claiming Garcia had not been convicted.
📄Key Facts:
– In 2019, a judge denied bond and ruled Garcia a flight risk and community danger.
– Immigration court found sufficient evidence he was a member of MS-13.
– Deportation order was issued—but not to El Salvador due to withholding protections.
– Media reports ignored or downplayed gang affiliation, painting Garcia as a sympathetic figure.
💬Key Quote:
“My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.” – Vice President J.D. Vance
⚠️Fallout:
– Vance accused the media of running a “propaganda operation” to vilify Trump-era immigration enforcement. POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and The Atlantic have been criticized for selectively citing legal documents and downplaying criminal affiliations.
THE FULL STORY:
The corporate media is being called out by Vice President J.D. Vance for failing to accurately report the facts of an immigration case where Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national and alleged member of the violent MS-13 criminal gang, was deported to his home country. While federal attorneys have acknowledged a U.S. immigration judge had issued an order preventing Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador, the corporate media—especially The Atlantic and POLITICO—have attempted to brush the more troubling facts regarding the MS-13 gang member under the rug, instead portraying Abrego Garcia as an innocent father of three.
According to The Atlantic–the same magazine that recently peddled the Signal ‘war plans’ hoax–the Trump administration detained and deported “a Maryland father with protected legal status” to El Salvador—obfuscating Abrego Garcia’s court-determined affiliation with MS-13.
Meanwhile, former Obama White House speechwriter Jon Favreau attempted to make political hay of The Atlantic article with a post on X (formerly Twitter) directed at Vice President Vance, Elon Musk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stating: “You just admitted to accidentally sending an innocent father from Maryland to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. And you refuse to do anything about it.”
‘A CONVICTED MS-13 GANG MEMBER.’
The post by Favreau prompted Vice President Vance to respond and set the record straight regarding Abrego Garcia’s criminal history.
“My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here,” Vance wrote, adding: “My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”
In an attempt to pile on, POLITICO legal reporter Kyle Cheney further added to the corporate media obfuscation with the journalist claiming that Abrego Garcia had not been “convicted” of being a gang member. Cheney, instead, states that the El Salvadoran national was merely “denied bond in 2019 over an informant’s claim he was in MS-13. ”
THE 2019 IMMIGRATION CASE.
However, Cheney appears to have only read the current legal filing by Robert L. Cerna, acting field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where ICE acknowledged the protective order barring Abrego Garcia from being removed to El Salvador. A review of Abrego Garcia’s 2019 case before a federal immigration judge reveals—as noted by Vice President Vance—that the court found sufficient evidence to determine that the El Salvadoran national was, in fact, a member of MS-13. The court’s determination is the equivalent of a conviction.
Further, the immigration judge did order his removal from the United States but also issued a grant of withholding—preventing the illegal immigrant from being sent back to El Salvador specifically, as the court found doing so posed a credible threat to his life.
Also of note in the 2019 case—and where Cheney appears to have stopped reading—is the fact that Abrego Garcia was denied bond during the hearing process as the immigration judge found he posed a danger to the community and was a flight risk. Additionally, after Abrego Garcia appealed the bond ruling, the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the court’s determination—agreeing that the El Salvadoran illegal immigrant posed a threat to the community.
‘MEDIA PROPAGANDA OPERATION.’
The Abrego Garcia is a fairly straightforward example of how the corporate media is desperate to frame the illegal immigration and deportation narrative as one where President Donald J. Trump is removing innocent fathers and mothers and sending them to an El Salvadoran gulag.
However, even in their most touted example of such an alleged instance, the actual facts tell a very different story. Abrego Garcia was determined by an immigration court to be a member of the violent MS-13 gang. Further, the court determined that Abrego Garcia was a danger to the community. That same court ordered Abrego Garcia’s removal from the United States, only barring him from being sent to El Salvador.
As Vice President Vance stated on X: “It is telling that the entire American media is going to run a propaganda operation today making you think an innocent “father of 3″ was apprehended by a gulag.”
READ:
Kyle Cheney, a “legal affairs reporter” is apparently unable or unwilling to look at the facts here.
In 2019, an Immigration Judge (under the first Trump administration) determined that the deported man was, in fact, a member of the MS-13 gang. He also apparently had multiple… https://t.co/tEFd4AUqGY pic.twitter.com/i70r4leqkw
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 1, 2025
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