Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been creating TikTok videos while the Trump administration has been forced to keep quiet under a federal judge’s gag order.
Abrego Garcia, one of the most high-profile illegal migrants living in the U.S., has taken to social media since his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody earlier in December, according to his newly-minted TikTok account. The Salvadoran national, accused of participating in a years-long human smuggling operation, is posting Spanish-language sing-along videos while a free man.
“So we, at [the Department of Homeland Security] are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Saturday in a public statement on X.
“American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system,” McLaughlin continued.
Abrego Garcia, also accused of being an MS-13 gang member and a repeat wife beater, has been battling the Trump administration in the courtroom since his deportation to El Salvador in March and subsequent return to the U.S. Federal prosecutors continue to seek his permanent removal from the country.
The Salvadoran national’s lawyers in August demanded that the Trump administration stop publicly calling him an MS-13 gangbanger, serial wife beater, human trafficker or other monikers associated with the accusations against him. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw — appointed to the bench in Tennessee by President Barack Obama — ordered federal prosecutors in October to warn Department of Justice and DHS employees against making any “prejudicial” statements about Abrego Garcia.
U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis — also an Obama administration appointee — on Dec. 11 ordered Abrego Garcia’s “immediate release” from ICE custody, allowing him to go back to his Maryland home for the time being. Xinis later extended her temporary restraining order keeping the illegal migrant out of federal custody during the Christmas holiday season.
Since his release from ICE custody, Abrego Garcia has made two TikTok videos, both of which are him mouthing along to Spanish-language songs, apparently in a suburban neighborhood. His most recent video, which has received nearly half-a-million views, shows him singing along to a song by Danny Berrios, an American singer popularly known for Spanish Christian music.
Federal prosecutors allege Abrego Garcia made more than 100 trips crisscrossing the country smuggling illegal migrants, drugs and firearms during his time living unlawfully in the U.S., according to a grand jury indictment. Those charges stem from a 2022 Tennessee highway stop in which local police noticed he was driving eight passengers across the country, none of whom had any luggage. All gave his address as their own.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys indicated he would accept deportation to Costa Rica. The Trump administration, however, has sought to remove him to several African nations such as Liberia, Uganda, Eswatini or Ghana.
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