The Biden-era leniency on criminal migrants is officially over. President Trump’s administration isn’t apologizing for cracking down, and this week’s high-profile deportation case is drawing a clear line in the sand between law and chaos.

The left is frantically defending Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant from El Salvador who’s been removed from the U.S. despite a 2019 court decision barring his deportation to El Salvador. Media outlets are rushing to portray him as a sympathetic “Maryland father with protected status,” while ignoring the reality that Garcia is no victim — he’s an alleged MS-13 gang leader and human trafficker.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, deporting Garcia wasn’t just appropriate — it was necessary. DHS Press Secretary Tricia McLaughlin made it clear: “The individual in question is a member of the brutal MS-13 gang — we have intelligence reports that he is involved in human trafficking.”

That hasn’t stopped progressive media like The Atlantic from attempting to turn Garcia into a martyr, hoping to undermine one of the most successful early initiatives of Trump’s second term: the swift deportation of criminal aliens.

Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt didn’t hold back during a fiery press briefing, setting the record straight in four simple points:

“First of all, the error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual, who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang.”

She continued, “We also have credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking.”

And then the bombshell: “This individual was a member, actually a leader, of the brutal MS-13 gang, which this president has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”

Leavitt made it crystal clear that under this administration, terrorists have no legal protections in America. “It is within the President’s executive authority and power to deport these heinous individuals from American communities. It is a promise he campaigned on. It is a promise he is keeping.”

That policy is popular. Trump’s immigration crackdown has already resulted in 100,000 deportations in his first 90 days, and the American people are firmly behind it. As more details emerge about those being removed, media-fueled sympathy quickly evaporates.

This latest flashpoint is just one of many examples of how Democrats and their media allies are making a dangerous gamble — aligning themselves with violent criminals to score political points. The administration, in turn, is seizing the opportunity to contrast its law-and-order agenda with the left’s recklessness.

The White House is also turning up the heat on federal judges who continue issuing activist rulings to protect criminals like Garcia, despite mounting intelligence and security concerns. But with Trump back in charge, those judicial roadblocks may not last long.

Meanwhile, Biden’s own record is being laid bare. Since 2021, his policies enabled the entry of an estimated 10 million legal and illegal migrants — a flood that’s driven down wages, worsened homelessness, and fueled a fentanyl crisis devastating American families.

For the Trump administration, deporting gang members like Garcia isn’t just a win — it’s a statement. America’s borders are back under control, and no amount of media spin will reverse that momentum.