White House senior counterterrorism official Sebastian Gorka appeared on Newsmax on Tuesday and defended the Trump administration's decision to deport El Salvadoran illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, calling it a matter of national security and common sense.
Gorka told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that the case of Abrego Garcia — who the Trump administration asserts is a MS-13 gang member — illustrates a clear-cut national security issue.
"Well, the question is solved. At so many levels," Gorka said. "Number one, this individual is a foreign national who came here illegally. So that's your first two strikes. Then we find out he's a member of an organization that we recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization. So, three strikes, and you're out."
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador this week. A judge had ruled in 2018 that he couldn't be deported, citing fears that rival gangs in his home country would target him. But recent developments — along with the formal designation of MS-13 as a foreign terrorist group — reignited efforts to remove him from the United States.
"It's quite telling that we have Democrats on Capitol Hill — not just the lunatics who are torching Tesla dealerships in acts of terrorism themselves — saying, 'oh my gosh, the rights of this individual,'" Gorka said.
"You mean, the terrorist who came here illegally? And that individual who said, 'I can't go home because one gang that I'm not a member of wants to kill me because I am a member of another gang?' Seriously, if you read this in a fictional novel 10 years ago, you'd say absolutely absurd. This is where we are today."
The Trump administration has defended its handling of the deportation. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that deporting Abrego Garcia would always be the outcome.
"There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland," Leavitt said. "Because he is a foreign terrorist and an MS-13 gang member. Not only have we confirmed that [El Salvador] President [Nayib] Bukele yesterday in the Oval Office confirmed that as well," The Hill reported.
Leavitt said Abrego Garcia will face consequences in El Salvador "for his gang affiliation and his engagement in human trafficking."
Gorka went further, suggesting some political leaders are siding with dangerous actors.
"I came up with this over a year ago when I had my show on Newsmax, and I realized that the taxonomy of politics in America is dead. It's not left and right. It's not Republican or Democrat. There's a line that divides us. Do you love America, or do you hate America?" Gorka said.
"And we have people who love America, like the president, like his cabinet, like the directors of his agencies who want to protect Americans," he continued. "And then there is the other side that is on the side of the cartel members, the side of the illegal aliens, on the side of the terrorists."
He added: "You have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting them? Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute."
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