JD Vance Defiant After Man Deported by Error: 'Gross To Get Fired Up'
By Kate Plummer
Vice President JD Vance has reacted defiantly to news that a government department deported a man in "error," commenting that it was "gross to get fired up" about the case.
Why It Matters
Since assuming office for a second time, President Donald Trump has made the deportation of migrants with criminal records a central pillar of his policy offering.
In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that just over 28,000 deportations were carried out in the first seven weeks of the Trump administration.
Newsweek contacted ICE by email outside of normal business hours for comment.
JD Vance
Vice President JD Vance speaks at Marine Corps Air Station Quantico on March 26, 2025, in Virginia. AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.
What To Know
On Monday, an ICE official admitted in a sworn declaration to an "administrative error" which resulted in the deportation of a Maryland man to a prison in El Salvador.
Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia, who has a U.S. citizen wife and a 5-year-old child, was stopped by ICE officers and sent to the prison CECOT in El Salvador, according to legal filings.
Abrego-Garcia, who came to the U.S. aged 16 in 2011 after fleeing gang threats in El Salvador, according to filings, had been detained by ICE in March over his affiliation with the gang MS-13.
This suspected affiliation came from a 2019 incident, according to his attorneys, when an informant made the claim he was linked to gangs, but Abrego-Garcia had already filed for asylum and a judge had withheld his removal to the country, a protected status. The judge ruled he could be targeted by gangs if deported.
His lawyers also said Abrego-Garcia was not affiliated with any gangs and that the government had not produced evidence to prove otherwise.
After Jon Favreau, Barack Obama's former director of speechwriting turned podcast host, called on Vance and other Trump administration figures to comment on X, formerly Twitter, the vice president said that it was "gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported."
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"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," he wrote.
"My further comment is that it's gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize."
What People Are Saying
Robert L. Cerna, acting field office director for ICE wrote in a sworn declaration: "Abrego-Garcia, a native and citizen of El Salvador, was on the third flight and thus had his removal order to El Salvador executed. This removal was an error."
He added: "This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia's purported membership in MS-13."
What Happens Next
In a legal filing, the government acknowledged the mistake, but said that because Abrego-Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned.
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