On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance wrote a long defense of the administration’s anti-immigrant rendition program, slamming critics who want the White House to obey a court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. It is a notable example of the lengths the White House has gone to try to deceive the public as it deals with political fallout from its open defiance of the federal judiciary.
Abrego Garcia, of course, is a Maryland resident who was arrested and shipped off to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador — along with hundreds of other alleged criminals, “gang members” and “terrorists” — without a chance to prove either his innocence or his legal status.
Vance begins with a lie. “Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country.”
That is a load-bearing “approximately,” to say the least. The U.S.-Mexico border is where the greatest number of immigrants enter the country. But according to an analysis by FactCheck.org, from 2021 to 2024 Customs and Border Patrol officers stationed there released 2.5 million people into the United States, with notices to report to immigration authorities for further hearings and processing, out of 6.5 million “encounters” across the U.S.-Mexico border and legal ports of entry. In addition, an estimated 1.6 million people evaded law enforcement to enter the country, for a total of 4.1 million people.
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You may think that’s still too many. But it’s nowhere near what Vance says it is.
Vance goes on to assert that this imaginary horde of “20 million illegal aliens” placed “extraordinary burdens on our country” and “committed violent crimes, or facilitated fentanyl and sex trafficking.” It’s been shown again and again that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens do. Stating otherwise is demagogic innuendo meant to short-circuit the rational mind and inflame prejudice.
From here, the vice president goes on the warpath against those who insist that the administration must follow due process — which is to say, follow the Constitution — when it seeks to remove undocumented immigrants. No, writes Vance, “what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment and so many other factors.”
Unfortunately for Vance, the Constitution is the Constitution regardless of how the White House assesses the nation’s resources. What’s more, as The New Republic’s Greg Sargent pointed out on Bluesky, Vance is omitting the fact that the removal in question is illegal — Abrego Garcia was given a stay of deportation in 2019. If the administration wants him out of the country, it is obligated to go before a judge and argue its case.
Not content to mislead, the vice president goes on to distort the facts again. “When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a third deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently.”
A reminder that there is no serious evidence that Abrego Garcia is a “MS-13 gang member.” At most, there is a flimsy, uncorroborated accusation from a police officer who was later suspended from the force. And a demand for due process — a demand that everyone has a chance to show that he is innocent until proven guilty — is not a demand to legalize the entire undocumented population of the United States. It is a simple demand to follow the law.
You can read the rest of Vance’s post if you’d like. It’s just more of the same: a set of distortions, falsehoods and bizarre suppositions that all depend on the lie that there has been some “invasion” of unauthorized immigrants.
Know someone who would want to read this? Share the column.
During the presidential campaign, Vance defended his decision to slander the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio — to disparage and lie about them for political gain — by telling reporters that he would “create stories” if that’s what he had to do to get the news media’s attention. And here he is again, creating stories. In this case, however, it is less to get the attention of the press and more to defend the administration’s open contempt for the rule of law.
Abrego Garcia, of course, is a Maryland resident who was arrested and shipped off to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador — along with hundreds of other alleged criminals, “gang members” and “terrorists” — without a chance to prove either his innocence or his legal status.
Vance begins with a lie. “Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country.”
That is a load-bearing “approximately,” to say the least. The U.S.-Mexico border is where the greatest number of immigrants enter the country. But according to an analysis by FactCheck.org, from 2021 to 2024 Customs and Border Patrol officers stationed there released 2.5 million people into the United States, with notices to report to immigration authorities for further hearings and processing, out of 6.5 million “encounters” across the U.S.-Mexico border and legal ports of entry. In addition, an estimated 1.6 million people evaded law enforcement to enter the country, for a total of 4.1 million people.
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You may think that’s still too many. But it’s nowhere near what Vance says it is.
Vance goes on to assert that this imaginary horde of “20 million illegal aliens” placed “extraordinary burdens on our country” and “committed violent crimes, or facilitated fentanyl and sex trafficking.” It’s been shown again and again that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens do. Stating otherwise is demagogic innuendo meant to short-circuit the rational mind and inflame prejudice.
From here, the vice president goes on the warpath against those who insist that the administration must follow due process — which is to say, follow the Constitution — when it seeks to remove undocumented immigrants. No, writes Vance, “what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment and so many other factors.”
Unfortunately for Vance, the Constitution is the Constitution regardless of how the White House assesses the nation’s resources. What’s more, as The New Republic’s Greg Sargent pointed out on Bluesky, Vance is omitting the fact that the removal in question is illegal — Abrego Garcia was given a stay of deportation in 2019. If the administration wants him out of the country, it is obligated to go before a judge and argue its case.
Not content to mislead, the vice president goes on to distort the facts again. “When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a third deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently.”
A reminder that there is no serious evidence that Abrego Garcia is a “MS-13 gang member.” At most, there is a flimsy, uncorroborated accusation from a police officer who was later suspended from the force. And a demand for due process — a demand that everyone has a chance to show that he is innocent until proven guilty — is not a demand to legalize the entire undocumented population of the United States. It is a simple demand to follow the law.
You can read the rest of Vance’s post if you’d like. It’s just more of the same: a set of distortions, falsehoods and bizarre suppositions that all depend on the lie that there has been some “invasion” of unauthorized immigrants.
Know someone who would want to read this? Share the column.
During the presidential campaign, Vance defended his decision to slander the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio — to disparage and lie about them for political gain — by telling reporters that he would “create stories” if that’s what he had to do to get the news media’s attention. And here he is again, creating stories. In this case, however, it is less to get the attention of the press and more to defend the administration’s open contempt for the rule of law.
Opinion | This Is How Far Vance Will Go to Sell a Lie
Unfortunately for his argument, the Constitution is the Constitution.
www.nytimes.com
