A top Republican in Congress rejected on Sunday CNN anchor Dana Bash’s assertion that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant deported from the United States and sent to prison in his home country of El Salvador, has been robbed of due process.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) shot back after Bash began an interview on “State of the Union” by pressing the lawmaker on the case of Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old living in Maryland who was sent back to El Salvador last month despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country.
“I want to start with what the core issue is here. And that is the fact that the administration detained and deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia without any due process, violated a judge’s deportation protection order, refused to provide evidence in court to back up its allegations. Does that concern you?” Bash asked.
.@GOPMajorityWhip: “President Trump made it very clear — [he’s] going to get rid of the gang members, the murderers, the rapists, the terrorists … and I think they’re doing a good job of it.” pic.twitter.com/n7U5zjan5x
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 20, 2025
“Actually, if you look at this, it’s very interesting when people talk about the fact that this illegal alien, who is not a resident of the U.S. — he is a citizen of El Salvador — actually did have due process in an asylum hearing, where his request for asylum was rejected,” Emmer said, noting how Abrego Garcia was granted protection from being returned to El Salvador in 2019 due to concerns about local gangs endangering him, but not asylum.
“The Trump administration, as part of the promise that they made during the campaign, President Trump made it very clear, I’m going to get rid of the gang members, the murderers, the rapists, the terrorists. And this is part of that process in keeping that campaign promise. And I think they’re doing a good job at it,” Emmer said.
Emmer was alluding to how the Trump administration accuses Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been designated as a foreign terror organization, and has released documents to substantiate the affiliation. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys deny the claim.
“There’s no evidence that was provided because there was no hearing in which to do so that he is either a murderer or a criminal or a gang member,” Bash replied. “Isn’t that something that should be provided to a judge, even an immigration judge, before somebody who has been in this country illegally, no question, but has been in this country and has appeared before judges before should be afforded?”
Emmer responded, “Actually, I think he was afforded that due process. In this case, an illegal alien was transported back to El Salvador. The administration initially thought it was a mistake, subsequently says it was not a mistake. The courts, interestingly, have suggested that we need to understand what ‘facilitate’ means in the order. So they have deferred back to the lower court, Dana, to tell the administration, ‘facilitate’ means this. And what’s going on in El Salvador now is, you have a citizen of El Salvador that is within the country of El Salvador. It really isn’t the U.S.’ ability to go in and remove someone. It’ll be up to the president of El Salvador.”
Bash later read from a federal appeals court order refusing to stop a judge’s demand for Trump administration officials to testify on whether they are making an effort to “facilitate” getting Garcia back, saying, “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order … This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
Asked for his response, Emmer said, “Yes, and it’s been referred to the lower court to interpret what ‘facilitate’ means. Dana, you make it — you want to make it about a much bigger thing. This is isolated incidents like the order that was issued after midnight this morning saying that they’re going to delay some deportations so that the lower court process can continue. These will happen on a case-by-case basis. And, again, the administration is absolutely following the law. I see nothing that they have done that’s illegal. Certainly, judges may disagree here and there, but the Supreme Court has been pretty good about supporting what this administration is doing legally.”
