Vice President JD Vance stated Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration will not “ask permission from far-left Democrats” before deporting dangerous criminals from the U.S. The Trump administration is defending its decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of Tren de Agua and remove Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national allegedly affiliated with MS-13. As the deportation of Garcia has caused outrage among Democrats, Vance emphasized that the administration is simply “doing the American people’s business” by deporting illegal immigrants with extensive criminal records.
“Back in 2019, an immigration judge looked at all the evidence, looked at all the data and concluded that this allegedly innocent person that we sent to El Salvador was actually a member of an MS-13 gang. He had also committed some traffic violations, he had not shown up for some court dates. This is not exactly father of the year here, this is a person that we don’t think should be in our country,” Vance told Fox News.
“Here’s the most important point, though, Lawrence [Jones] is whatever the argument is, whatever the justification is, no one doubts that no even the crazy, left-wing media criticizes the idea that we can deport this person,” the vice president continued. “They just took issue with the reasoning for why we deported this person. This was unquestionably an illegal alien, this was unquestionably a person who broke the laws to get into our country, this is unquestionably a person who an immigration judge had found had zero right to be in the United States of America. We do not ask permission from far-left Democrats before we deport illegal immigrants. We do the American people’s business.”
A Department of Homeland Security official stated that although Garcia was deported due to an immigration violation, his criminal history and gang ties warrant continued detention by law enforcement. Vance criticized congressional Democrats, claiming they have “gone off the deep end” by prioritizing the interests of undocumented immigrants over those of victims—such as 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was strangled by two members of the Tren de Agua gang. Since President Trump’s return to office on January 20, the administration has deported over 100,000 undocumented immigrants and made more than 113,000 arrests, according to the New York Post on Tuesday.
Several federal judges, most notably U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — an appointee of former President Barack Obama, have attempted to block Trump’s deportation efforts. Vance expressed optimism that the U.S. Supreme Court will side with the administration as they continue to fight against the judges’ rulings. “You’re right, the courts, some radical left judges, have stepped in and said ‘you’re not allowed to deport MS-13 gang members.’ That’s crazy, we think the Supreme Court is gonna overrule it and we’re gonna keep on fighting for the president’s prerogative to enforce the law,” Vance said.
