If you got all of your news from CNN and MSNBC, you’d have a higher than 50/50 chance of believing the Trump administration had accidentally arrested and deported a naturalized American citizen living in Maryland, and for no particular reason.
Cable networks CNN and MSNBC have hopelessly twisted the story of an El Salvadoran illegal alien who recently was deported by the Trump administration. Over the past week, these two networks have referred to Kilmar Abrego-Garcia as a “Maryland man” or “Maryland father” a whopping 120 times, while identifying him as an illegal alien only three times. Meanwhile, MSNBC alone aired eleven objectively false assertions that Garcia was actually a legal resident.
MRC analysts looked at all coverage of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador on CNN and MSNBC, from April 1 through April 6. In that time, the networks aired a combined 72 stories about Garcia (40 on MSNBC, 32 on CNN).
CNN referred to Garcia using terms such as “Maryland man” and “Maryland father” 51 times. Across the 32 news stories about him last week, only a single segment (3%) contained any mention he was in the country illegally, and just thirteen (41%) even bothered to mention he was from El Salvador, not America.
On MSNBC, Garcia was identified only as a “Maryland father” or similar terms an absurd 69 times. Throughout the 40 segments discussing his deportation, his illegal status was mentioned in just two (3%), and only twelve segments (30%) pointed out that he was from El Salvador.
Garcia has had an outstanding order of removal since 2019. However, because of his supposed fear of persecution by gang members in his home country, an immigration court granted him a withholding of removal to El Salvador. It’s important to note that a withholding of removal does not confer legal residency; rather, it merely means that the individual in question is temporarily exempt from being removed to the one specific country for which he was granted the withholding.
In other words, Garcia still could have been deported to any other country that was willing to take him, and at no point was he granted legal residency.
Predictably, CNN and MSNBC utterly failed to elucidate this distinction to their viewers. The term “withholding of removal” was only mentioned in seven reports (17.5%) on MSNBC. On CNN, the total was a better, but still dismal, twelve stories (37.5%)
Analysts also found eleven separate instances — all on MSNBC — in which hosts or guests outright lied that Garcia was in the United States legally. These went beyond the technically-correct (but incredibly misleading) assertions Garcia had “protected legal status” — a nebulous, legal-sounding allusion to his withholding of removal:
“They got the wrong guy. He was here legally, and he’s being treated like this, and sent down there, where he’s now stuck.”
— Ari Melber, host of The Beat, April 1.“He’s a legal resident who has a 2019 court order that prevented him from being sent back to his home country.”
— Chris Hayes, host of All In, April 1.“The Trump administration even admits they made a mistake and deported the wrong person. A Maryland father who was legally here, on those now contested flights to El Salvador.”
— Ari Melber, host of The Beat, April 4.“Garcia, a protected legal resident who has been living in Maryland since 2011…”
— Alicia Menendez, host of MSNBC Prime, April 4.“A father from Maryland, who’d been in the country for a while, legal — well, he had legal protected status. Essentially. The government said, ‘You can’t deport him,’ he was sent anyway.”
— Chris Hayes, host of All In, April 4.“The judge ordered that Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, a legal U.S. resident and a Salvadoran migrant, must be returned to the United States no later than Monday.”
— Melissa Murray, fill-in host for Velshi, April 5.“Well, I think this case speaks to just the whole process being one that is so dangerous for all people, whether you are an undocumented immigrant or a U.S. Citizen, or like this man that had temporary protected status.”
— Christina Ramirez, President of Nextgen America on Alex Witt Reports, April 5.On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return Kilmar Abrego-Garcia home to Maryland… An immigration court ruled in 2019 that he could remain in the United States.
— Jonathan Capehart, host of The Saturday Show, April 5.“They had someone who was lawfully in the United States… and they’re saying, oh, well, you know, we made a mistake.”
— Rachel Barkow, NYU Law Professor on Alex Witt Reports, April 6.“Last month, a Maryland man was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador, despite an order that he could remain in the United States.”
— Al Sharpton, host of PoliticsNation, April 6.“This is a very, very important case. This is about a father in Maryland, a long-established taxpaying member of our community, who had legal status.”
— Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, on PoliticsNation, April 6.
Here are the basic facts of Garcia’s case:
He came to the United States illegally in 2011 from El Salvador, where he is still a citizen. In 2019, during an immigration court hearing, a judge determined that he was “a verified member of MS-13” based on information provided by a confidential informant. A board of appeals later upheld that first judge’s determination, and he was issued a final order of removal. With all of his other options exhausted, Garcia abruptly applied for asylum, claiming that he would be in mortal danger if he were returned to his home country. A second immigration judge denied that asylum claim and instead granted him a temporary withholding of removal to El Salvador specifically.
By contrast, this preposterously misleading coverage of Garcia’s case by CNN and MSNBC exemplifies the corporate news media’s obsession with turning illegal aliens into the sympathetic protagonists whenever they’re covering border security. This well-documented trend shows no sign of stopping any time soon.
