Chad Williams

The question of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's MS-13 affiliation seems, at first glance, like it shouldn't matter very much. After all, everyone agrees he was a deportable illegal alien when he was removed from the country, and that status doesn't rely on him being a gang member or having committed a crime. And yet, progressive immigration advocates are fighting tooth and nail, amplifying falsehoods to try and create the public impression that he's not MS-13. Sure, they want to bring him back to Maryland - but there's a more sinister dynamic at work. If Kilmar Abrego Garcia is and was a member of MS-13, that means our immigration laws are so exploitable that a MS-13 member can be detained by ICE, be identified as MS-13 by an immigration judge, have that finding affirmed on appeal, and STILL remain in the United States. He can go on to beat his wife to the point that she files multiple police reports - and remain in the United States. He can be caught dead to rights trafficking six other illegal aliens across the country - while driving on a suspended license, in a car owned by a known human trafficker - and remain in the United States. In short, it means that the scandal is not the administrative error related to removing him specifically to El Salvador. It means that the scandal is that MS-13 gangbangers and their lawyers have been successfully exploiting American asylum laws for YEARS to ensure that members of MS-13 can live in our country illegally and terrorize American citizens - EVEN IF THEY ARE CAUGHT AND FOUND DEPORTABLE. How many people has this guy terrorized? His US Citizen wife? His US citizen children? Dozens of vulnerable illegal aliens who he trafficked at the behest of a violent Salvadoran gang? And our institutions - despite having had any number of opportunities to detain this person and send him away - simply did not, or could not, do it. We need immigration reform. And not the kind that grants amnesty to a "Maryland Man" like Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The type that *ends* the abuse of our immigration laws by gangsters and their lawyers, and protects both American citizens and vulnerable Salvadorans from predatory gangs.