Bulwark Takes - Trump White House Gives Middle Finger to Judge who Ruled for Deported Migrant

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

Sam Stein and Tim Miller dive into a disturbing case where the Trump administration openly defies a judge's ruling by refusing to bring back a wrongfully deported Maryland man. They uncover shocking details about the administration’s tactics, the moral implications of their defiance, and the broader risks this poses to the American justice system.

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hey guys, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at The Borg. I'm joined by Tim Miller. We're here late Friday night because a lot of fucked up shit's happening and we want to talk about it. All right, Tim, we have, yeah, fucked up shit. I don't mean to curse twice in a row.

But earlier today, we had a statement from the White House in response to a judge's ruling that this Maryland man, Abrego Garcia, who had been wrongfully sent to El Salvador against a prior judicial order that he not be sent to El Salvador. Anyways, the judge today says, you got to get him back. He was wrongfully sent there. You need to get him back. And it looked for a moment like the judicial system had put up a guardrail against Trump and his worst impulses. And then we get a statement from the White House in response to that ruling.

And they say, quote, this is from Carolyn Leavitt, the press secretary, we suggest the judge contact President Bukele, that's President of El Salvador, because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador. In short, pound sand. And that's that. Yeah, well, the judge does have jurisdiction in Maryland, which is where Abrego Garcia was living for many years, checking in with the federal government, actually checking in with the immigration officers every year about his status. He had this non-deportation protected status. He has a son who is disabled, has serious disabilities, who is an American citizen that he's been parenting. His wife is an American citizen. And the idea that that this judge does not have any jurisdiction over it is crazy.

What does that extend to this notion that because he's on foreign ground, it is one thing. Right. If it is, I get, you know, again, this would be despicable, right? But like, let's say, for example, someone from El Salvador left to flee to come to America to gain asylee status. And then at the border, you know, came to a border, you know, crossing and, you know, our immigration officials said, no, we're sending you back. Then that person doesn't, then there'd be no jurisdiction in America. That's not what this is. Like this is in america like yeah what so how far does this extend right like if they if the government wrongly sent a u.s citizen to el salvador prison would they would we not have jurisdiction over it and you know look i've made this point before

in this case also you know it's it's sometimes sometimes silly to try to bring logic to their fucking demagoguery. But we're paying El Salvador. He's like a babysitter, right? This is the example I could be using. It'd be like something happening at the house when a babysitter was watching my child and me being like, sorry, I don't have jurisdiction over the child anymore. It's across the street. It's across the street. It's like we are paying Bukele to keep him.

So the whole thing is nuts in addition to being inhumane. Let me just say a number of immigration experts have pointed out that there is ample precedent for people wrongly deported to who have then been brought back under U.S. pressure or U.S. law. So the idea that they simply cannot do this is absurd. And again, to your point, we have a current ongoing relationship with Bukele. If they wanted to do this, they could say, hey, can you get this guy back on a plane? Because we have an order to have him back here. We brought him there. You're housing him for us. We're paying you for it. We need him back. It would take a minute, a fucking minute, and they can't do it or they don't want to do it, I should say,

because they're assholes about it. And they think it's in their interest to just say, pound sand to the judge. I can't get over. I just can't get beyond the idea that we disappeared a guy illegally, ripped him from his family and from his kid. We were told to get him back and we were just saying, no, we're not going to do it. I mean, whether or not you think we have the legal right to do it, which we don't, or whether or not you think it's fine and in the national interest to do it which it isn't it is not morally defensible to do something like this and i'm shocked at how few people are outraged yeah beyond our circle again and then a me and then also just uh you know to bring up the tate brothers like the government is shown when they want to bring somebody in the

country they can and the tate brothers are also sex pests criminals of their own rights alleged and convicted and certain and not in america and other countries and we brought them into america now they've allegedly committed more crimes since they've gotten here so like we can exert our power the whole point actually let's just even make this point the whole point of trumpism is that like everything's a deal to our yeah everything's a deal like we can bully countries and get stuff out of them it's the whole point of the chair it's like this this high this notion is just silly that they're hiding behind this so um and and this is not she's not the only one actually in addition to what what levitt said tricia mclaughlin at the spokesperson for gnome at dhs was on fox earlier today and and her comment was even grosser let's play the clip the american people should know who

this individual is he's not some maryland father as the mainstream media will make you believe he's actually a member of ms-13 and was involved in human trafficking um it's unbelievable the framing of this whether this man man is in El Salvador or in a U.S. detention center, he should be locked up. And people should also know who MS-13 is. It is a gang that rapes, maims, and kills Americans for sport. They should not be on U.S. soil. And any media outlet who tries to make him a darling or a victim should really be ashamed. This is the second time she's said that. She tweeted this as well, saying that this guy is a human trafficker.

And so I just want to say this. Like, I don't know Gilmar Abrego Garcia. I really don't. I mean, you know, his wife has very emotionally and passionately advocated for him. So we don't know. All you know is what is in the court filings. The government has had opportunity to make the case that this person is a gang member or a human trafficker in the filings with these judges that are that are that are trying to rule that he that he should be brought

back they have not done so anytime that they have that they're under the law tim i would argue at this point we're what five six seven days since the story broke. The fact that they haven't done so suggests they just don't have the evidence because there's every incentive out there to say, we have this social media posting. We have this evidence of his relationships with MS-13 members. We have this documentation. This proves that all these people rallying to behind this guy are wrong. Every incentive is out there for them to do it and they won't do it. And this is not an administration that is reluctant to put out judicial evidence because it might, you know,

sully the case. They don't care about those norms. If they had it, they would show it and they're not showing it because they don't have it almost certainly true yeah so i just i'll keep a hedge because it's like we don't know but this is crazy this is the behavior of stalinists you know it's like i guess i just i don't know i can't speak for like what this man has done in his life it's it's that's a crazy expectation that's what you're supposed to follow the law process right yeah you know and so it's like she's out there just smearing him like you're a human trafficker you're a human trafficker it's like okay show us the fucking receipts trisha if he's a human trafficker show us the receipts you're just out there on fox attacking this guy who who

has been who has been disappeared to a concentration camp who has a kid with like very serious problems whose wife has been abandoned like okay show it show us that if he's a human trafficker then show or show the judge show the judge and then maybe that we'd be in a different boat but you guys don't have anything you've shown nothing and we're kind of ingesting these stories in a bit of a style like we're looking at it like one man who was you know sent to a horrible place and whether his rights are violated but you mentioned the kid and the wife and there's just case after case now of this happening. So the other thing that happened today down in your neck of the woods,

a man named Jose Francisco Garcia Rodriguez, Cuban refugee, 73-year-old grandfather from Lafayette. Lafayette is how we say it down here. Lafayette. No, not even close. Lafayette. Lafayette. Lafayette.

That's why I said that the first time. Lafayette. No, not even close. Lafayette. Lafayette. Lafayette. That's why I said that the first time. Lafayette. All right. Still pretty Yankee. Down in the parish or whatever the fuck. Guy's a grandfather. He was picked up by ICE. I mean, imagine just the community ripples that that has,

the familial ripples that that has. I mean, this is just like they're just tearing these communities apart. And for a human refugee this person fled cuba marco the secretary of state his parents fled cuba like they fled communist cuba like where does marco have a soul left or is any of the old marco in there like what could possibly be the justification for ice going up to a circle k and like i think they said he was a gunpoint like at taking this grandpa who again in all of these cases here's the other thing besides tricia just popping off to the other guys a human trafficker didn't in none of these other cases have they even presented any evidence that these people committed crimes and jd vance the

vice president was talking about abrigo garcia the maryland man and on and talking about his traffic tickets like that's what they have like he had traffic the the this this man in lafayette like his family we know about this because his family is like spoken out and they're like begging for help they don't know how to get to him and it's like he fled communist cuba i i if there was any immigrant that republicans ever liked across the party it was the cuban refugees i'm reading the i'm reading the story now it's just ridiculous i mean they said he arrived in the united states with the clothes on his back no education not, not speaking English, struggling, made mistakes, paid for them. And for the next 43 years was living a good life, raising a family, working hard labor, 40 to 60 hours a week, paying taxes, paying into Social Security, which he never used because that's what immigrants do.

She did not – his daughter did not elaborate on the trouble he got many, many years ago, which I guess was the foundation for his arrest by ICE and detention. But at 73 years old and a grandfather, I just fail to understand what the threat is here. And the only reason that they would do this is because they want to juice up deportation stats, and they're going for anything right now. Yeah. And it's crazy. Yeah. I think that's what – I mean, that has got to be the motivation. That's it. Because they said it was going to be the criminals criminals and it's just like none of you and i guess this guy may be a criminal from 45 years ago but like yeah he's been trying to become

a citizen for 10 years like this is the whole point where would we even be deporting him to what are we gonna do so we're gonna the taxpayers are gonna pay for this yeah the taxpayers are gonna pay that we're gonna detain him we're gonna put him in the natchez fucking immigrant prison that we've been that we've like been expanding up in louisian northern louisiana like what are like what is the point what is the what's the plan here and what's the benefit what how does this benefit us i fail to really understand that one now i'm sure trisha will have some social media posts at the 73 old Probably Facebook. Yeah, more likely Facebook. Definitely MSN 13 content there. Let me just get your larger take. Because this is what, you know, prompted me to want to talk to you. So we have the instance of the White House just telling this judge, we're not going to

go get this guy, despite you're saying we have to go get this guy. Two other things happened today. One is Donald Trump, out of thin air, said, you know what? I'm going to extend the TikTok ban for 75 more days. I don't think there's anyone who's like, that's legal. They're just like, yeah, it's not legal, but he's doing it. And no one's really challenging it. But there are some people speaking out saying, no, you can't actually do that. Then there's another story that broke kind of under the radar.

But a federal judge on Friday ruled that the administration was violating his order. And his order had been for them to stop freezing federal funding from FEMA to 19 democratically run states. Basically, the Trump administration was playing politics with FEMA funds. Judge said, stop doing it. And then they checked back in and he decided they were still doing it. So another case of the Trump administration just basically ignoring a judge's decree. A couple of weeks ago, I had been quietly sort of like,

okay, Trump really hasn't violated, you know, they're pushing the boundaries of the law, but they haven't really dramatically overstepped it. I'm not feeling like that anymore. I feel like they are very much defying laws openly at this juncture. Yeah. I mean, the TikTok thing is like, it's at some ways it's the most blatant. It also is like the type of thing that we've seen from Biden, Obama, Bush.

Yeah. It's like, it's a pretty common. So that doesn't make it better. A socially acceptable violation. Yeah, avoidance of the law. We've seen that from some other administrations lately. This other stuff is a totally different animal. And the idea that not only would you ignore a judge's demand that you bring a man back that you've wrongfully admitted,

that you wrongfully deported, but then that you would make fun of the judge and kind of mock the notion that you would think about following their order. This FEMA stuff, we'll see what comes. That, again, that's not something that was happening in the Biden administration. You weren't seeing the Biden administration illegally being like,

oh, we're just going to cut the emergency funds to Texas. And then told that they couldn't do it just did it anyway still do it right like that is again so so all of this stuff is like really treading new turf and a lot of it is just like kind of testing the limits and like that's the thing to me i and the story of abrigo garcia is so tragic and his family but the thing that's the most alarming in the biggest picture is it just it really just does feel like a testing ground for like the worst you know types of like orban fucking you know uh all you just you name the autocrat like what what these other guys are his buddy mbs that he's down there golfing with us you know like all that that it's it's a it's a test for that type of really lawless behavior. And that's the most alarming.

No, I totally agree. And when you have early acquiescence to this type of behavior, it breeds future behavior like this. So here we are. All right, buddy. Thanks for staying up with me. Thanks for joining me. Happy to do it.

It's nice to be back in my hole. Appreciate it. See you. Thank you guys for tuning in. Talk to you later. Peace.