Democrats' decision to champion Abrego Garcia is poor politics and bad optics | Opinion
It's President Donald Trump, not Democrats, who is more closely aligned with what the majority of Americans want in handling illegal immigration.
I'm puzzled by Democratic politicians' decision to turn Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant and alleged member of a violent gang who's been deported from Maryland to El Salvador, into their latest cause célèbre.
Four Democratic House members landed in the capital city of San Salvador on April 21 to appeal for his return to the United Sates: Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Robert Garcia of California. Just days earlier, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland made the same journey to meet with Abrego Garcia, who is being held in a Salvadoran prison.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the deportation was illegal, and the Trump administration was instructed to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. But the Justice Department contends that it doesn't have jurisdiction because he's being held by a foreign government.
The Trump administration was wrong to deport Abrego Garcia without the benefit of due process, but the fervor with which Democrats have embraced this case is bizarre.
Trump is working to fix America's broken immigration system
The message being sent to Americans is that President Donald Trump is busy trying to fix our nation's broken immigration system while Democrats champion someone who took advantage of the broken system to enter the United States illegally in 2011 and to stay in the country for more than a decade.
The circumstances that led up to his deportation also matter. Police in Maryland arrested Abrego Garcia in 2019, accusing him of being a member of MS-13, a Salvadoran gang that the United States has classified as a terrorist organization.
Abrego Garcia denies he's a member of MS-13, but the judge who heard his 2019 case ruled that there was enough evidence to indicate that he was a member of the gang and that his release would "pose a danger to property or persons."
The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed that decision, but Abrego Garcia was released under a protective custody order in 2019.
In fact, Abrego Garcia's legal argument for why he should not have been deported back to El Salvador is that he fears he will be targeted by Barrio 18, a rival gang of MS-13. Should it be Americans' job to provide a permanent safe zone for illegal immigrants who fear violent gangs in their home countries?
Still, Democrats have seized on Abrego Garcia's case as a symbol of innocence, despite the damning optics.
But for Democrats, the issue really isn't Abrego Garcia's guilt or innocence. It's about trying to capitalize on Trump's mistake in deporting an illegal immigrant without due process.
Trump should admit that mistakes were made
Rather than admit to the mistake, the Trump administration has doubled down. This is unfortunate. An admission of errors in this case could help turn down the heat.
Yet, it's also obvious that the Trump administration is trying to restore order when it comes to immigration and border security after four years of chaos under President Joe Biden. And Americans have made it clear that they prefer order to chaos.
According to a Pew Research Center poll released in March, more than half of Americans (51%) say at least some illegal immigrants should be deported − with 97% of those respondents saying that committing a violent crime should trigger deportation.
Nearly a third (32%) of Americans “say all immigrants living in the country illegally should be deported.”
Only 16% say no one should be deported.
On this issue, it's Trump, not Democrats, who is more closely aligned with what the majority of Americans want.
Americans also support due process. But Democrats' decision to embrace someone who entered the country illegally and might have connections to a violent gang is poor optics and worse politics.
Nicole Russell is a columnist at Paste BN and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.