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Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Yesterday, I tweeted out after hearing a segment on National Public Radio on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. NPR reported that there was no evidence presented that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 member and that “he had been living quietly in Maryland” before he was suddenly arrested and deported. 

While many disagree on the handling of the case, few would agree that Abrego Garcia who was reported for spousal abuse and suspected of human trafficking was “living quietly in Maryland.”

Anyone listening to the radio program would have been left with an incomplete and distorted account of the case.

The print story used the same language as the radio segment. NPR claimed that Abrego Garcia

I have previously said that I believe the Administration should have returned Abrego Garcia to the United States for a correct and prompt deportation. If he were to be brought back, I cannot see any barrier to Abrego Garcia not only being deported but deported back to El Salvador.

NPR leaves out a couple of facts in its passing reference to his being “granted protection by an immigration judge.” 

Abrego Garcia already had a hearing at which the judge found evidence that he was an MS-13 member. It was not only based on his being arrested with MS-13 gang members and wearing clothing associated with the gang. It was also based on a confidential source connected to the gang. After losing at his hearing, Abrego Garcia then lost on appeal.

The only reason that Abrego Garcia was not removed is that he said that he was being threatened by a gang that could harm him in El Salvador. That gang, however, reportedly no longer exists.

More importantly, President Trump has declared MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization, which bars the use of the justification for his not being removed. In other words, he has little factual or legal foundation under his original claims to remain in the country.

However, putting the merits aside, NPR’s portrayal of Abrego Garcia was bizarre. He was repeatedly accused of beating his wife. The court record states:

Abrego Garcia was also suspected of human trafficking. Indeed, the description of the stop leaves one astonished that he was allowed to simply drive away. According to DHS:

So Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant, was stopped with an expired license in a car with  eight others and no luggage on a trip from Texas to Maryland. He gave a false statement and the officer suspected human trafficking but let him go.

It is now being reported that the person whom Abrego Garcia described as his “boss” at a construction job was Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, an illegal migrant previously convicted of human smuggling. The black 2001 Chevrolet Suburban belonged to Hernandez Reyez.

One can reasonably object that there was no final adjudication of these claims from spousal abuse to human trafficking to gang membership. However, it strains credulity to claim that Abrego Garcia was living a “quiet” life in Maryland. The complaint of his wife that he was a wife-beater alone would seem to contradict NPR’s claim.

The claim has that certain “fiery but mostly peaceful” quality to it . . . except NPR just decided to leave out the “fiery” and the “mostly” parts.

This month I wrote about NPR repeating a false claim that the Supreme Court rejected the claim the government was involved in censorship — despite the express statement of the Court to the contrary.

NPR has long been accused of showing bias in its coverage. It is now facing calls to end the public subsidy for the news outlet.