Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Lawyer For Democrat’s Favorite Accused Gang Member Brazenly Demands US Deport Him To Country Of Choice

Screenshot/Rumble/MSNBC

The attorney for adjudicated MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia told MSNBC host Ana Cabrera Tuesday that the federal government should release his client if it won’t deport him to Costa Rica.

Abrego Garcia is currently under indictment for human trafficking charges in Tennessee and had initially been deported to El Salvador, leading Democrats to take up his cause and demand his return to the United States. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told Cabrera on “Ana Cabrera Reports” that Costa Rica was willing to consider Abrego Garcia a refugee.

“The judge has scheduled another hearing in court in Maryland in about three weeks. And certainly, the injunction is in place between now and then. The government confirmed yesterday that they’re aware of the injunction and that they’re not going to remove him in violation of the injunction,” Sandoval-Moshenberg claimed. “This is now the fourth African country that they’ve tried to send him to. You know, the first three said yes, then they said no. Meanwhile, all this while, as the judge pointed out very pointedly in court yesterday, Costa Rica has offered him a grant of refugee status, which means that he gets to live there permanently, at no risk of being deported to El Salvador, where he was tortured earlier this year. And yet again, the government had no good answer for why they’re not willing to simply take that off-ramp.”

WATCH:

The Trump administration released a 13-page dossier detailing the evidence against Abrego Garcia in April, including findings from immigration judges that he was a member of MS-13, an El Salvadoran prison gang designated a foreign terrorist organization by President Donald Trump. Abrego Garcia has also been accused of domestic violence on multiple occasions.

Abrego Garcia was detained in Tennessee on suspicion of human trafficking during a traffic stop, but was released at the behest of the Biden administration FBI in 2022, according to the Tennessee Star. Abrego Garcia returned to the United States on June 6 to face charges in a federal court in Nashville related to the 2022 incident.

United States District Judge Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland, an Obama appointee, ordered the Trump administration not to deport Abrego Garcia in August.

“Judge Xinis asked why Trump officials have decided to send him to Liberia, saying there’s ‘no reason for that,’ only it’s almost in the ocean, it’s so far away,” Cabrera said. “And as you just mentioned, it’s the fourth African country they’ve tried to send him to when he’s, you know, agreed he would be okay being deported to Costa Rica. Have you gotten any explanation for that? Why Liberia?”

“No, we haven’t. And the only explanation that’s plausible is that they’re trying to use deportation to Africa, as opposed to Central America, to punish him because somehow it’s scarier, you know, Africa. There’s 200 — there’s about 200 countries on this Earth, right? They can name one after another after another after another, but they can’t keep him locked up in the meanwhile. Right?” Sandoval-Moshenberg claimed. “Especially while they — if what they actually wanted to do was to have deported him from the United States, they could have done that a month and a half ago to Costa Rica.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have claimed he would face persecution in over 20 countries, including Costa Rica.

This morning, I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.

Watch for the part of my interview that @CBS tried to… pic.twitter.com/28fsGZug48

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 31, 2025

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“That’s why we’re asking the judge to order his release, unless they’re willing to deport him to Costa Rica, right? Put a deadline, a reasonable deadline to remove him to Costa Rica, and if they haven’t done it by that particular date, they’ve got to release him back to Maryland,” Sandoval-Moshenberg claimed. “That’s our position.”