Former federal prosecutor Francey Hakes told Newsmax on Tuesday that liberals' insistence that an illegal immigrant from El Salvador living in Maryland didn't receive due process is a "complete lie."
Hakes joined "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" to wade into the "complicated case" of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration.
The White House asserts that he is a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which President Donald Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
"I mean, the first thing to remember is that he is in the country illegally. And if you have crossed the border illegally, you are deportable by definition," Hakes said, noting that that alone didn't land Abrego Garcia in Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Terrorism Confinement Center), a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
It's what followed — that he admitted being a gang member, she said.
"When he was arrested or picked up in 2019, he had an immigration hearing. Lots of people are yelling online and on television that he hasn't received any due process. And that is a complete lie, because he did get the due process to which illegal aliens are entitled," Hakes said. "And at that hearing, the judge found that the evidence presented by DHS was credible, that he was a member of MS-13, which also made him deportable.
"Now, after that, he got an appeal. So that's the second bit of due process that he got. He got appellate level … judge panel to look at his case and to agree with the initial federal judge who found that he was deportable," Hakes added, setting up Abrego Garcia's biggest problem.
"Now, when he went to court, the judge, however, had some sympathy for his claim that if he were sent back to El Salvador, he might face violence from a rival gang. Now, what I've read, Greta, suggests that what that means is, if he was worried about violence from a rival gang in El Salvador, that he's effectively admitting he's part of a gang himself," Hakes said.
"And now that President Trump has designated MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization, he's no longer entitled to that withholding of the deportation that a judge in some sympathy gave him in 2019 because he was no longer entitled to claim asylum," she added.
Hakes also pushed back on the assertion that Abrego Garcia hasn't been convicted of a crime. That's irrelevant, she said.
"I think what people miss about being in a gang, because they say that he was never convicted of an actual crime, is they forget the policies around conspiracy," Hakes said, likening gang membership to belonging to the mafia.
"Every member of the gang is a member of a criminal conspiracy. And without every member, the gang doesn't succeed. And that is why membership in these gangs represents a clear and present danger to this country and our citizens," she said.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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