Donald Trump’s counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka claims Americans who don’t support the president’s anti-immigration agenda and deportations policy are “on the side of the terrorists.”
He suggested advocates for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran father living in Maryland who was mistakenly deported to a brutal prison in his home country, could be prosecuted for “aiding and abetting.”
“It’s not left and right, it’s not even Republican or Democrat. There’s one line that divides us: Do you love America, or do you hate America? It’s really quite that simple,” Gorka told Newsmax on Wednesday.
“We have people that love America, like the president, like his cabinet, like the directors of his agencies, who want to protect Americans. And then there’s the other side that is on the side of the cartel members, on the side of the illegal aliens, on the side of the terrorists,” he added. “And 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.”
Gorka, who serves as a deputy secretary to the president and the White House senior director for counterterrorism, is tasked with developing the Trump administration’s approach to combating domestic terrorism.
The Independent has requested comment from the White House and the Department of Justice.
The administration has designated transnational gangs Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as “foreign terrorist organizations” and is moving to deport alleged members summarily.
Officials have labeled Abrego Garcia a “leader” of MS-13, but the allegation rests solely on a statement from an unnamed police informant in 2019. The informant reportedly claimed Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13’s “Westerns” clique, which operates out of New York, where Abrego Garcia has never lived.
Abrego Garcia, his family and attorneys have flatly rejected the allegations.
The administration is also refusing to share evidence to support allegations that he is “involved in human trafficking.”
Administration officials blitzed media networks on Wednesday and staged a last-minute White House press conference to blunt criticism for Abrego Garcia’s removal.
“Nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father. He will never live in the United States of America again,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that “America is safer because he is gone.”
The White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security have also sought to justify his detention in El Salvador by pointing to a protective order filed by his wife in 2021. The order was dissolved a month later.
“Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura told CNN in a statement Wednesday. “We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect.”
The order does not justify federal agents “abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation,” she added. “Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador in 2011 when he was 16 years old. He entered the United States illegally at the time but a judge in 2019 granted a withholding order that prevents his removal from the country for humanitarian reasons. He is a sheet metal apprentice in Maryland, where he has been living with his wife and five-year-old child, both U.S. citizens. The couple is also raising two other children from a previous relationship.
Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement swiftly deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s notorious jail, where the administration deported dozens of alleged members of Tren de Aragua under the president’s use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
The White House and government attorneys have repeatedly admitted that his removal was due to an “administrative error.” But the administration has refused to seek his return and instead are fighting in court to continue his imprisonment as an alleged member of a foreign terrorist organization. which administration officials argue supersedes any court order against his removal.
Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his “release from custody in El Salvador.” On Tuesday, a federal judge in Maryland rebuked officials for doing “nothing” since then and has ordered attorneys to report what steps, if any, they are taking to secure his release.
