Vice President JD Vance sparked an avalanche of criticism on Tuesday when he wrongly claimed that a migrant from Maryland who had court-granted “protected status” in the United States was “a convicted MS-13 gang member” and therefore deserved to be imprisoned in El Salvador with no right of appeal.
Vance made the comments after it was revealed ICE admitted the deportation and subsequent imprisonment was an “administrative error” for which the government has no recourse. The Trump administration, however, continues to claim the deported migrant is tied to MS-13.
The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff reported the bombshell news on Monday night, “The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it had grabbed a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador, but said that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return from the megaprison where he’s now locked up.”
Liberal podcast host Jon Favreau shared the story and wrote, “You just admitted to accidentally sending an innocent father from Maryland to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. And you refuse to do anything about it.” Favreau also tagged Vance and asked if he had any comment.
Vance replied, “My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.”
“My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they...
By Matthew Knott and Nick Bonyhady April 19, 2025 — 5.54pm , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any tim...