To hear Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-RI) tell it, Garcia was just an innocent, doting father who was randomly targeted by the Trump administration to be sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. The Supreme Court then ordered Trump to return this “legal” resident back to the United States. Trump has refused, sending our nation into a constitutional crisis. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has even announced he is going to personally travel to El Salvador to bring Garcia home.

The problem is that Democrats leave a lot out of Garcia’s story, and the truth makes Trump’s failure to return him quite reasonable.

For starters, Garcia was not in the United States legally. By his lawyer’s own admission, he entered the country illegally in 2011. Then, eight years later, Garcia was arrested at a Home Depot while illegally soliciting employment. The Prince George’s County Police Department then transferred him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which began deportation proceedings against him.

As a defense to deportation, Garcia tried to claim asylum, claiming his life was in danger from the Barrio 18 gang. But his asylum claim was denied and the judge ordered his removal. The judge did, however, grant Garcia a “withholding of removal” order, forbidding his removal to El Salvador, but this did not make him a “legal” resident. As Garcia’s own lawyers admit, “Should [the Trump administration] wish to remove Plaintiff Abrego Garcia to any other country, they would have no legal impediment in doing so.”