"DHS under gag order while Garcia makes TikToks": Senior Homeland Security official slams US Justice system

Florida [US], December 28 (ANI): Assistant Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin on Saturday (local time), while replying to a commentator, mocked the US justice system.
McLaughlin said that the DHS was under a gag order while the El Salvadorian illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia made TikToks.
In a post on X, she said, "So we, at Department of Homeland Security, are under a gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks. American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system."

So we, at @DHSgov, are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks.

American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system. https://t.co/11pNrHQUK6

— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) December 27, 2025

McLaughlin was reacting to a minute-long video that appears to show Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant who became a flashpoint in the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, filming himself lip-syncing to a song in Spanish.
A court order had previously been issued by an Obama-appointed federal judge that restricts DHS and other Trump administration officials from publicly discussing Abrego Garcia's human smuggling case. That order was later narrowed, according to The Tennessee Star, as quoted by Fox News.
Abrego Garcia had repeatedly sought to curb public criticism from Trump administration officials, arguing the remarks threaten his right to a fair trial, Politico reported, as quoted by Fox News.
Abrego Garcia's case has drawn national attention since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an "administrative error."
Upon his return to the US, Abrego Garcia was immediately taken into federal custody and detained on human smuggling charges from a 2022 traffic stop. The Trump administration has claimed he is a member of MS-13, which Abrego Garcia denies.
A federal judge this week canceled Abrego Garcia's trial and scheduled a hearing to review whether prosecutors pursued the human smuggling charges vindictively, Fox News reported, quoting its sources. (ANI)