On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded forcefully when a liberal reporter insinuated that ICE was deporting gang members solely based on tattoos and clothing. Andrew Feinberg, White House Correspondent for The Independent, referenced a document that detailed the criteria for identifying members of the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua (TDA), claiming, “You can get classified by simply having certain symbols in your tattoos and wearing certain streetwear brands. That alone is enough to get someone classified as TDA and sent to El Salvador?”
But Leavitt quickly fired back, saying, “That’s not true, actually, Andrew,” before rebuking him and the rest of the legacy media for essentially opposing President Donald Trump’s efforts to quickly deport those illegal migrant members of a designated terrorist organization. “Have you talked to the agents who have been putting their lives on the line to detain these foreign terrorists who have been terrorizing our communities?” Leavitt asked. “TDA is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women, and our agents on the front lines take up deporting these people with the utmost seriousness.”
“There is a litany of criteria that they use to ensure that they qualify for deportation,” she said. “The president made it incredibly clear to the American public that there would be a mass deportation campaign of not just foreign terrorists, but also illegal criminal aliens who have been wreaking havoc on American communities. Shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals! This is a vicious gang.”
She added: “You are questioning the credibility of these agents who are putting their life on the line to protect your life and the life of everybody in this group and everybody across the country And their credibility should be questioned?”
“Shame on you” — Leavitt gets mad at @AndrewFeinberg for asking her about a document indicating that tattoos are all it takes for migrants to get sent to a slave prison in El Salvador pic.twitter.com/bRkfC8uzsy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2025
Since taking office in January, Trump has intensified efforts to combat illegal immigration by significantly increasing deportations and strengthening U.S. border security. His administration has deployed thousands of military personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border, reintroduced the “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers, and expanded the use of expedited removal proceedings.
Also, his administration has been flying terrorist suspects out of the country, generally to a high-security prison in El Salvador, despite federal court rulings attempting to reign in those flights. The Justice Department on Friday filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to get a ruling on Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly remove the terrorist gang members.
