The Department of Homeland Security is incensed that former detainee Kilmar Abrego Garcia is no longer in their custody and is free to post to social media.
Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin reposted an X post by MAGA YouTuber Benny Johnson in which he shared a video posted by Abrego Garcia to TikTok on Saturday, writing, “So we, at @DHSgov, are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks. American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system.”
In the video, which was posted to TikTok on Friday, Abrego Garcia can be seen lip-syncing to “Himno de Victoria” by Danny Berrios. In a second video posted to the platform, Abrego Garcia records the sky and trees before turning the camera toward himself and singing along to Jesús Adrián Romero’s “Sumérgeme.”
Employees of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are under a gag order preventing them from making comments that could prejudice the public or interfere with Abrego Garcia’s right to a fair trial.
Earlier this month, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused Border Patrol officer Greg Bovino of repeated violations of the gag order, citing comments made on national television in which he referred to Abrego Garcia as an “alien smuggler” and “wife beater,” then asked the court to impose sanctions.
Under the auspices of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security, including Noem herself, have worked overtime to smear Abrego Garcia, repeatedly describing him as a “monster,” human trafficker, domestic abuser, child predator, and MS-13 gang member.
Abrego Garcia, who has lived in Maryland for years with his American wife and child, has not been convicted of any crimes, and denies any involvement in MS-13.
Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, has become one of the most high-profile targets of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation strategy.
After a judge ordered that the 30-year-old be returned to the U.S., the Trump administration immediately began working to deport him again, considering locations like Uganda and Liberia, countries to which he has no ties, and indicting him on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia was released from custody on Dec. 11 after a federal judge determined that the government had no viable plan for deporting him.
Abrego Garcia has agreed to be deported to Costa Rica, and the Costa Rican government has agreed to accept him on humanitarian grounds, but the Trump administration has insisted that Costa Rica is unwilling to accept him despite evidence to the contrary.
On Tuesday, a federal judge canceled Abrego Garcia’s trial in Tennessee and instead scheduled a hearing for late January to examine whether or not prosecutors have been acting vindictively and selectively targeting him.