A former Republican National Committee chair tore into Vice President JD Vance over his ongoing demonization of a Maryland father mistakenly deported to El Salvador and trapped in the infamous CECOT megaprison — and for his dismissal of the very concept of due process rights.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of any crime, and the basis of the allegation that he was a member of the criminal MS-13 gang was the word of one police informant. Moreover, he had a protective order in place requiring that if he was deported, it couldn't be to El Salvador. Trump administration attorneys have acknowledged the deportation was an "administrative error."
Regardless, Vance has led the charge in insisting he is a dangerous criminal who deserves to be removed to a Salvadoran prison.
"Vice President JD Vance has now joined the chorus of voices in Trump’s Cabinet eager to justify Abrego Garcia’s illegal deportation by throwing the nation’s core principle of due process to authoritarian wolves," wrote ex-RNC chair Michael Steele, a frequent critic of the Trump administration. "Apparently not occupied with the duties of the vice presidency, Vance has spent hours this week arguing with journalists on social media."
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“To say the administration must observe ‘due process’ is to beg the question: 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,” Vance posted to X, among other things falsely claiming that the Biden administration let "20 million illegal aliens" into the country and forced the government's hand.
"Don’t let his unearned smugness fool you. There is no question to be begged," wrote Steele. "Garcia’s due process isn’t up for debate. That question was answered in 1791, when the Fifth Amendment was ratified. And it was reaffirmed in 1993, when conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, 'It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.'"
Indeed, he wrote, "For a man who tries to paint himself as an anti-intellectualist and who once praised President Richard Nixon for saying 'professors are the enemy,' Vance is using a lot of Ivy League jargon as a smokescreen to attack a fundamental tenet of the American judicial system."
Vance's effort to gaslight America into accepting this state of affairs cannot go unanswered, Steele concluded.
"Soon, what was once unthinkable will be the new 'normal,' paving the way for even more blatantly illegal actions and more destruction of this country’s foundational principles," he wrote. "It has to stop here. We have to stop it."
