Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the infamous “Maryland Man” of media renown (who is actually an illegal immigrant and accused MS-13 gang member from El Salvador with no legal right to be in the United States) was the subject of yet another story on National Public Radio.
The online version of the radio report by Eric Westervelt and Joel Rose for NPR's All Things Considered Wednesday added some more sympathetic details to the Maryland man's media mythos -- he's just a quiet family man!
A federal judge agreed to give the Trump administration another week to answer detailed questions about the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia....Despite the temporary reprieve, the standoff between the White House and the federal courts may still be heading for a reckoning. In a scathing order Tuesday evening, Judge Xinis accused the Justice Department of willful refusal to comply with her order and attempting to "obstruct" discovery after receiving what she characterized as vague and unsatisfying responses to her demand for information on efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
….
The White House continues to insist, without providing solid evidence, that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, the Salvadoran gang that the Trump administration has recently declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization. White House border czar Tom Homan defended the administration's handling of the Abrego Garcia case.
"We removed an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, wife-beater, designated terrorist from the United States," Homan told reporters on Wednesday. "He's home. He's a citizen of El Salvador, a native of El Salvador who had due process despite what you're hearing."
NPR used the word "illegal" once to describe how Garcia had been deported and once to admit "he entered the U.S. illegally." Let’s see how the following “living quietly in Maryland” description holds up to future scrutiny:
Court documents show that Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally but was granted protection by an immigration judge in 2019 that should have prevented his deportation. He had been living quietly in Maryland with his wife and three children and working in construction until Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested and deported him last month.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia complained Tuesday that despite the court-ordered discovery process, the government had produced "nothing of substance" and repeatedly refused to answer questions based on what the administration called the "false premise" that the administration must facilitate his release. In fact, that is exactly what the Supreme Court ordered.
NPR found a “remarkable opinion” from Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who NPR eagerly emphasized was Reagan appointee (Xinis is an Obama appointee, a fact NPR didn't bother noting.)
"The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not," wrote Wilkinson, a conservative judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. "Regardless, he is still entitled to due process."
Law professor and legal analyst Jonathan Turley, who favors Garcia being returned, at least temporarily, wrote on X:
….no one familiar with the case would claim that a man (1) repeatedly accused of beating his wife, (2) suspected of human trafficking, and (3) accused of being an alleged MS-13 gang member lived quietly in Maryland.
