Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said alleged human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia is mounting a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign to cast himself as a victim, despite years of immigration violations and mounting criminal allegations that Pappert argues tell a very different story.
Appearing on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert said Abrego Garcia’s recent public statements, delivered in Spanish and aimed at criticizing the U.S. government, appear to be carefully coached by well-funded lawyers and advocacy groups working to delay his deportation.
He highlighted how Abrego Garcia has multiple high-profile legal teams, including elite law firms and attorneys with close ties to Democratic political figures, as well as support from CASA. This organization provides media and public relations assistance to illegal immigrants.
“I’m not surprised to see him try to make himself the victim in all this…I think he’s getting some very effective coaching from his lawyers,” Pappert said.
Pappert also challenged claims about Abrego Garcia’s inability to speak English, pointing out that during the 2022 Tennessee Highway Patrol traffic stop when troopers suspected human trafficking, Abrego Garcia attempted to speak English, albeit poorly.
He emphasized that after living in the U.S. for more than a decade, Abrego Garcia’s limited English proficiency undermines the credibility of his narrative and reinforces the impression that his current presentation is strategic rather than authentic.
“All the way back in 2022 when he was looking at potentially being arrested by the Tennessee Highway Patrol who suspected human trafficking at the time, according to a DHS document, he was struggling to speak English… It was very rough for a guy who’d been living in the country for a decade at that point, and now for 13 years,” Pappert said.
On the legal front, Pappert strongly criticized Judge Paula Xinis, calling her an activist judge who was attempting to override immigration courts and rewrite settled immigration law.
He argued that Abrego Garcia remains deportable and that the judge’s claim that Abrego Garcia’s 2019 removal order was invalid due to missing language represents an unprecedented and legally unsound reinterpretation of deportation standards.
Pappert predicted that higher courts will overturn her ruling and reaffirm that the deportation order is valid, especially now that DHS has obtained a new final order of removal.
“I’m sure that the Trump administration is not looking to defy the courts for something as frankly unimportant as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but this appeal, I believe, will absolutely show that this insane crackpot judge overstepped, she attempted to invalidate and rewrite a hundred years of immigration law, and we’re going to find out that he is in fact, deportable,” he said.
Pappert contended that the prolonged litigation exemplifies “excessive process,” not due process.
He agreed with critics who argue that Abrego Garcia has received far more procedural opportunities than any American citizen would ever receive, including the ability to relitigate a six-year-old immigration decision and effectively shop for favorable judges, and stressed that no U.S. citizen could lose a case years earlier and later revive it simply because they disliked the outcome.
“No American citizen gets this level of process…It’s beyond even the concept of process. He’s getting due coddling at this point,” Pappert said.
Pappert concluded by stressing how fundamentally political the case is, explaining how it is designed to delay deportation rather than ensure fairness.
He maintained that due process for illegal aliens is constitutionally limited to notice and an opportunity to be heard, not endless appeals and technical loopholes, and, in his view, Judge Xinis is not defending due process but instead creating new procedural requirements to achieve a preferred outcome.
“[This case] has nothing to do with due process or the courts or standard operating procedure,” he said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
