Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin swiped at Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national and illegal immigrant at the center of a deportation saga, for “making TikToks” as a federal judge continues to permit his release from U.S. custody.
McLaughlin reposted a video that appears to show Abrego Garcia filming himself lip-syncing to a Spanish song.
“So we, at [DHS], are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks. American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system,” she said in response to the video on X.
Officials at DHS and the Department of Justice are effectively under a gag order in Abrego Garcia’s separate criminal case, in which he faced human smuggling charges. Back in October, a federal judge in Tennessee ordered them to refrain from making prejudicial statements about him.
That criminal trial was recently canceled by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who has now scheduled a hearing for Jan. 28 to determine if the prosecution for human smuggling was vindictive.
Another federal judge, meanwhile, has continued to bar federal immigration officers from detaining Abrego Garcia after his release in early December.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, extended a pause barring his detention on Monday, ensuring he remains out of custody until at least late December.
Abrego Garcia’s case has been one of the most highly charged of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda.
After living illegally in the United States for about 14 years, the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite him having a withholding of removal order barring him from being deported to that country. That order does, however, permit his deportation to any other country.
FEDERAL JUDGE EXTENDS BAR ON ICE REDETAINING KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA
But after what was called an “administrative error” and Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., he instead faced human smuggling charges. After he pleaded not guilty, he was released from custody only to be arrested by federal immigration officers days later and held until Dec. 11, when Xinis ordered his release.
The Trump administration is still searching for another country to deport Abrego Garcia to. His lawyers, meanwhile, have suggested Costa Rica, a country they said has agreed to take him, as his preferred country.
