Addressing the press outside the White House on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to lose her cool while defending the Trump Administration’s deportation campaigns.
“The president made it incredibly clear to the American public that there would be a mass deportation campaign of not just foreign terrorists, but also illegal criminal aliens who have been wreaking havoc on American communities,” Leavitt told the press in the outdoor briefing. “And shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals … This is a vicious gang… that has taken the lives of Americans.”
A reporter, who she called “Andrew,” started to push back about people who have been deported based on nebulous criteria, such as misinterpreted tattoos.
Oh my god. Karoline Leavitt just had a full blown meltdown outside the White House. pic.twitter.com/JCQfAJwugc
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) March 31, 2025
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“You are questioning the credibility of these agents who are putting their life on the line to protect your life, and the life of everybody in this group and everybody across the country.”
Later in the day, the Trump Administration was further under fire for the deportation of a man who, by all indications, did not indicate being deported.
Per CNN, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was in the country under protected status, was deported to El Salvador, which the administration acknowledges in legal documents was done “because of an administrative error.” However, the Administration claims it cannot return him to the U.S. now that he is in Salvadoran custody, reportedly a notorious “mega-prison” in that country.
CNN reports that this “appears to mark the first time the administration has admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, however, spent some time on social media Monday night falsely accusing Garcia, a father of two who is married to a U.S. citizen, of being a “convicted” gang member.
Vance here, mocking @jonfavs for not reading the court filing, says the deported man was a “convicted” gang member
The court filing does not say that. It says he was denied bond in 2019 over an informant’s claim he was in MS-13. That’s not a conviction. https://t.co/Zpi181RT9X pic.twitter.com/r61pVkgGnP
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 1, 2025
“Vance is badly wrong here,” activist Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote on X. “In 2019, a police informant alleged the guy was in MS-13. He spent a year in ICE detention as a result, then won his case. He’s been out for the last five years, married to a U.S. citizen, has two kids, and STILL has no criminal record at all.”
Photo courtesy of X screegrab
