White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at reporters Tuesday for daring to cover the Trump administration’s deportation of a Maryland father.
“Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for Father of the Year,” Leavitt scoffed during a fiery press briefing.
She said the “Democrat and media outrage” over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been “nothing short of despicable.”

The Trump administration has ignored judges’ orders to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was deported to El Salvador on March 15, to the United States.Abrego Garcia Family/Handout via Reuters
“Many in this country care more about this quote, unquote Maryland father, illegal alien MS-13 gang member, than a Maryland mother, and an American citizen who was brutally murdered at the hands of a different illegal alien,” Leavitt said, referring to the murder of Rachel Morin—which had nothing whatsoever to do with Abrego Garcia.
A Maryland jury on Monday found Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant, guilty of the 2023 murder of Morin in Bel Air, Maryland.
Rattling off a list of arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the press secretary declared, “President Trump and our administration will not rest until every single highly illegal alien is removed from our country.”
So far the administration has provided no evidence so far that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 but claimed that it has “intelligence” to that effect. He has never been charged with or convicted of a gang-related crime.
It has so far done nothing in the wake of a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison four weeks ago. In court filings, the Trump administration admitted the deportation of Abrego Garcia was an “administrative error.” Instead it has said that it is powerless to do anything to get him back and suggested that a court has no right to make it do anything because he is being held by a foreign government.
Abrego Garcia, who fled to the United States to escape gang threats in El Salvador in 2011, was deported on March 15 despite a 2019 court ruling barring his removal due to the risk of persecution in El Salvador.
His family, including a five-year-old child and two stepchildren—all U.S. citizens—remain in Maryland. His wife told immigration advocacy group CASA, that he has “always been there” for their three children, two of whom she said are on the autism spectrum and a third who has epilepsy, describing Abrego Garcia as an “excellent father.”
“He has been the main provider of our household and the love of my life for over seven years. Since our family has been separated, I have been devastated and confused,” she said.

Abrego Garcia’s chances of being released from CECOT, the maximum security prison he is being held in, dimmed further this week when El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, made clear he has no intention of sending him back.
“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said during an Oval Office meeting with Trump. “Of course I’m not going to do it. We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists.”
In the same meeting, Trump floated the idea of deporting U.S. citizens, or in his words, “homegrown criminals.” Fox News’ Peter Doocy pressed Leavitt on the proposal, which legal experts have widely panned as unconstitutional, during Tuesday’s briefing.
“Deporting American citizens to Central American prisons—is it legal, or do you need to change the law to do it?” Doocy asked.
“It is a legal question the president is looking into,” Leavitt replied.