Lora Ries: Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia Followed Full Due Process

Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, said Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran who was deported by the Trump administration, received full due process in his deportation case.

Ries, during Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, stressed that Abrego Garcia received full due process under U.S. immigration law as he went before two immigration judges – one for detention, another for asylum and other relief.

“Abrego Garcia has [been delivered due process]. He went before two immigration judges. One, regarding his immigration detention and another immigration judge regarding his application for asylum withholding a removal and relief under the Convention against Torture,” Ries said.

Ries criticized the abuse of the U.S. immigration system, arguing that Abrego Garcia had multiple opportunities to apply legally but did not.

“The process that is due for Americans is quite generous for immigrants. So you are supposed to apply for a visa before you come here or apply for refugee protection before you come here. He did not do that…Once here, you have a second opportunity to apply for asylum within one year. He did not do that either. Instead, he waited eight years when he was finally caught by ICE. Then, at that third opportunity, said, ‘No, wait, you can’t deport me because now I’m going to claim a fear of El Salvador’,” Ries explained.

She further argued that Abrego Garcia’s case illustrates how the immigration process is weaponized to delay justice and enable unlawful presence in the U.S.

“This just has opened a lot of Americans’ eyes to how abused and exploited our very generous immigration system really is,” Ries said.

Ries noted that immigration proceedings are civil, not criminal, yet politicians on the left have intentionally conflated the two to stir public confusion about “due process.”

“On the left, they’re trying to confuse the public about criminal proceedings and civil proceedings. Immigration proceedings, deportation proceedings are not criminal. They’re civil. They’re administrative. Immigration judges are employees of the Justice Department, they’re Executive branch employees. They’re not Article III judges. Finding someone deportable and ordering their removal is not a criminal conviction, nor is deporting someone a criminal sentence,” Ries explained.

Ries predicted the Left will not abandon its narrative surrounding due process for illegal aliens and instead will move on to another “poster child” for immigration advocacy as Abrego Garcia’s disturbing background, including his MS-13 gang affiliation, human trafficking suspicions, and domestic abuse allegations, continues to come to light.

“Each week more negative information comes out about Abrego Garcia, so while the left has picked him as their poster child, I think they are regretting that now. They’ll find a better poster child and they’ll continue to argue due process,” Ries said.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.