Fox News: The Melding of an Innocent Man With a Sexual Predator
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 4/20/25
Last week on Fox News the network combined the story of a brutal rape and murder of a young American mother of five with the plight of Kilmar Ábrego García, an undocumented immigrant who was mistakenly sent to a brutal maximum-security mega-prison in El Salvador.
After the government admitted Ábrego García was sent to El Salvador in error the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration had to facilitate his return to the United States. Donald J. Trump responded by inviting the president of El Salvador to the White House where he pretended, he was powerless to help.
Trump even discussed sending “home grown criminals” or U.S. citizens, to the same draconian prison that some have compared to Nazi concentration camps.
The United States has reached a constitutional crisis that could damage or destroy our democracy for years to come. Fox News made the choice to cheerlead for the erosion of the rule of law by conflating Ábrego García’s case with a violent rape and murder even though Ábrego García has never been convicted of any crime.
When Donald J. Trump first announced his candidacy for president in 2015, he made a number of statements about immigrants that shocked and horrified many Americans.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Soon after Trump lost deals or contracts with the Spanish cable network Univision, Macy’s, Serta mattresses, NASCAR, ESPN, the PGA, and DC restaurateur Jose Andres.
The fallout included the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants which Trump owned at the time. He even lost his starring role on the reality show that helped revitalize his image the “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Nine years later Trump would win his second presidential bid partially on a promise of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants whom he portrayed as violent criminals.
Fox News helped whip its audience into a frenzy of xenophobic fear and hatred promoting migrants as dangerous monsters who only emigrated to the United States to destroy it from within.
The network ran story after story of blighted American cities overrun with gang violence, illegal drug use and human trafficking caused by dangerous foreigners.
It didn’t matter that numerous studies have shown that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than American citizens. Trump invented stories about hostile foreign countries purposefully unleashing prisoners and mental patients across our southern border.
He didn’t need proof to back up his wild claims. Fox News was more than happy to elevate any nonsense he spewed and recycle old footage of migrants rushing a border checkpoint to promote the fantasy of a military style invasion.
Last week Fox News doubled down on Trump’s demonization of migrants by melding a man who had never been convicted of any crime with a vicious sexual predator.
Other top stories last week on Fox focused on Trump’s reckless tariff policies, the administration’s attacks on Harvard University and the general trashing of Democrats along with former president Joe Biden.
Anyone watching Fox News exclusively last week might have missed on on stories about the Sudan Civil War, increased violence in the conflict between Israel and Hamas along with a case before the Supreme Court which could affect how the Affordable Care Act mandates the coverage of preventative care.
Shows I covered last week:
Fox & Friends
The Five
The Ingraham Angle
How Fox and PBS Framed the Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia Case.
Last week the story that dominated both networks was the deportation of an undocumented immigrant Kilmar Armando Ábrego García who was mistakenly sent to a maximum-security mega-prison in El Salvador.
The U.S. government openly admitted that deportation was due to an “administrative error.” The Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision, agreeing with a lower court, that the government must facilitate Ábrego García’s return to the U.S..
On Monday on “Fox & Friends,” the Ábrego García’s case was presented as a battle over the definition of the word “facilitate.”
“The Supreme Court said. The Supreme Court said, hey, you know, this was an error. Do what you can to bring him back. But we don't have the authority talking about the guy. That's exactly right. We don't have the authority to go to the executive branch and make them do foreign policy. And I think the administration has pretty much put a, you know, a marker through the sand and said they're not going to budge now. But that court did say they want daily updates. So he's going to drag, the administration to court every single day for an update until I think he gets what he wants. I think this ultimately is going to go back to the Supreme Court as someone, because there was so, so much ambiguity there.,” said Lawrence Jones.
“With the word facilitate, we have to facilitate bringing him home,” said Ainsley Earhardt.
“And the administration has said, you know, we can't get them back, but, you know, there are ways they could do it, but obviously they are testing the judicial system. They're seeing how far they can go. And there's Mr. Garcia right there,” said Steve Doocy.
The producers featured a menacing photo of Ábrego García.
The PBS News Hour.
That evening on “The PBS News Hour,” White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López presented a far more comprehensive overview of the case.
“Now, also today, Stephen Miller, a Trump, top adviser to President Trump, falsely claimed that the Supreme Court said that the lower district's ruling was unlawful. Also, he claimed that the Supreme Court unanimously sided with the White House in this, issue. And that's not true. The Supreme Court specifically said that the administration must facilitate Garcia's, quote “release from custody in El Salvador” and that the Trump administration needed to be prepared to share details about what they were doing to facilitate that release. Now, SCOTUS has also ruled that due process is necessary for anyone that the administration is deporting in the manner that they deported Ábrego García and Trump officials repeatedly claimed today that Garcia himself is a member of MS-13, but the appeals court has said that the administration has provided no evidence that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. So when when you break it down, William, a number of things that were said today by Trump officials, including AG Pam Bondi, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is the opposite of what the administration is saying in court. They have repeatedly admitted in court that they made an administrative error,” said Barrón-López.
The Administrative Error - The History of Abrego Garcia
According to reporting by The Washington Post, In March 2012 Kilmar Armando Ábrego García entered the United States illegally when he was only 16 years old.
In March 2019, Ábrego García was arrested while waiting in parking lot of a Home Depot in Prince George’s County, Maryland, hoping to get construction work. An unnamed confidential informant told police that Ábrego García was “an active member of MS-13 with the Western clique,” which is in Upstate New York, a place he has never lived.
He was also cited for possible gang activity for wearing a Chicago Bulls cap and a sweatshirt that was deemed “indicative of Hispanic gang culture,” by Prince George’s (PG) County police.
Ivan Mendez, the PG County Police officer who filed a gang survey that implicated Ábrego García was later suspended from the force after he was accused of tipping off a sex worker, he had hired that her brothel was facing an ongoing investigation.
Mendez was later fired from the force and criminally indicted after pleading guilty to misconduct. Mendez was one of many police officers involved with the gang unit of the PG County Police who were fired for misconduct and criminally prosecuted.
Federal officials later decommissioned the GangNET database associated with the gang survey as its credibility was questioned due to claims of racial profiling.
After he was questioned PG County Police handed Ábrego García over to ICE where was held in a detention center for three months. At his deportation hearing he told the judge that he fled El Salvador after the Barrio 18 gang tried to extort his mother’s business, while threatening to kill him and his brother if they didn’t agree to join their ranks.
On October 10, 2019, Judge David M. Jones, a Trump appointee, granted Ábrego García withholding of removal, since he faced harm or persecution if he returned to his home country. The judge’s order barred Ábrego García from being deported back to El Salvador.
Ábrego García was released from custody on October 23, 2019. He was ordered to check in with ICE annually. Records show he fully complied.
On March 12, 2025, Ábrego García was pulled over by ICE officers while driving with his 5-year-old autistic son. His wife was called to pick up their child or face having him turned over to Child Protective Services.
When she arrived ICE officers told her that her husband’s immigration status had changed. Within days he was deported to El Salvador.
Ábrego García has never been convicted of any crime in the United States.
The only evidence the government has that he was a member of MS-13 was the gang survey filled out by the police officer who was fired for misconduct and the testimony of an unnamed confidential informant who claimed Ábrego García was a member of a division of MS-13 in a state he had never lived in.
How Fox News Weaved Two Unrelated Stories Together.
For most of last week Fox News hosts conflated the story of the brutal murder of a Maryland woman, Rachel Morin, with the deportation of Ábrego García.
The two cases shared nothing in common except they both included an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador.
According to reporting by CNN, in August 2023 Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was brutally raped and murdered while jogging on a trail near her home in Bel Air, Maryland a suburb of Baltimore.
Morin’s killer was quickly captured and identified as Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, an undocumented immigrant who was wanted for the murder of another woman in his home country. DNA evidence connected him to the crime scene.
On Monday a jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding Martinez-Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree rape, among other offenses.
Ábrego García was not connected to Morin’s murder in anyway. He was also not convicted of any crime in the United States.
Throughout the week Fox News hosts would bring up Rachel Morin’s murder while discussing Ábrego García’s deportation case.
Producers would often present Rachel Morin or her mother’s face on the screen during segments about Ábrego García.
On Wednesday White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing with Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin who discussed details of her daughter’s murder.
The briefing came the same day a federal judge said he had found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.
By Friday of last week Fox News aggressively connected the two disparate news stories. On “The Five,” Dana Perino opened a segment about Ábrego García by bringing up Rachel Morin’s murder.
“President Trump meeting with the mom of Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother who was raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. And on the other side, the Democratic senator from that same state, who jetted off to El Salvador and sat face to face with suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” said Perino.
Later that night, Raymond Arroyo, hosting “The Ingraham Angle,” used almost the exact same language.
“Rachel Morin was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant in Maryland. On the other Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen, who hightailed it to Salvador staring into the eyes of an MS-13 gang member who's been accused of trafficking and beating his wife,” said Raymond Arroyo.
Ábrego García was not charged with a domestic violence offense or trafficking his wife. Ábrego García’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed for a civil protective order four years ago which she later decided to not follow through with.
She released a statement to multiple outlets about the incident that led to the protective order.
“After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution following a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order, in case things escalated. Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through the situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling.”
Rachel Morin’s killer got due process. He was able to hire a lawyer to try to defend himself in court. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers and will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Although it is cold comfort for the Morin family Rachel Morin’s killer was brought to justice and will most likely never harm another woman again.
Ábrego García was not afforded due process before he was deported and sent to an inhumane detention center.
The only things these two men have in common is they both lived in Maryland and were undocumented immigrants from El Salvador.
Trump’s Plan - Self Deportation
On Thursday on “The Ingraham Angle,” Laura Ingraham threw some subtle shade at Donald J. Trump while discussing his tactics to get more undocumented immigrants out of the U.S.
“As of a few days ago, there were 47,928 illegals in detention. But as far as the mass deportations that Donald Trump promised. Well, they've got a long, long way to go. ICE deported only about 11,000 migrants back in February and just over 12,300 in March. That's not nothing. But again, he got millions here. But now they're urging migrants to self-deport. And Trump's willing to pay them to leave,” said Ingraham.
On Monday on The PBS News Hour, White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López used the same phrase to describe Trump’s deportation policies.
“The continued defiance of the court's orders in the Ábrego García case, as well as efforts to target other legal immigrants, ultimately is all about self-deportation,” said Barrón-López.
Producers cut to a pre-recorded interview with Ira Kurzban, an immigration attorney.
“This is just all political construct by Trump to scare the American people. And this is all in many respects, theater. It's all designed, and even his statement and I'm going to take Americans and send them there. It's all designed to get people so afraid that they leave the United States. That's what this is really all about. Ultimately, a Ábrego García case could have big implications for the other Venezuelans and migrants that were deported to El Salvador,” said Kurzban.
The Democrats are Tricking the Trump Administration into Defying the Courts
On Wednesday while a guest on “The Ingraham Angle” Alex Marlow, Brietbart News editor-in-chief, had a wacky concept about Trump’s defiance of federal judges and the Supreme Court.
“This is the playbook they're challenging Trump. Will Trump defy a court order? He hasn't done that yet. He doesn't want a constitutional crisis. Remember, even the Boasberg case, those people were on a plane out of the country by the time that injunction came down. Miller played it perfectly. Will Miller play perfectly? Every single time. They're betting they're going to catch him slipping up, and they'll be cornered,” said Marlow.
It’s never Trump’s fault.
Trump does have a long history of ignoring the rule of law and intimidating judges.
Brian Kilmeade - Migrants Deserve a Chest Full of Razor Blades
On Tuesday on “Fox & Friends,” Brian Kilmeade completely dehumanized migrants.
“The president has done something that I don't even think he thought he was able to do. In four months, he's gotten the border crossings down 99%. He's able to get thousands of illegal immigrants and deport them out of the country. Round him up, locate him at the same time, tackle some of the immigrants’ ungrateful immigrants on our campuses. So, you might say, okay, this is story in Maryland. Do you want to talk about this, where the Justice Department had a, attorney that said they shouldn't be sent back, and he said he was wrong. We suspended him. But having said that, yeah, it's a story. Yeah, but the bigger story is what has happened with illegal immigration in America. We have shut down the border. We're building the wall. We're putting concertina wire on our side of the wall. So, when they jump, if they're going to jump, they're going to get they get a chest full of razors.”
Beware the Sleeping Giant of the Fighting the Oligarchy Tour
On Friday on “The Five,” Dana Perino and Katie Pavlich were both dismissive of the massive crowds Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are getting as part of their “Fighting the Oligarchy Tour.”
“Also, it's pretty cute that the media things at the rally that Trump had at Madison Square Garden was nothing. And yet, we're supposed to be so excited that they can sort of like half fill an auditorium,” said Perino.
“Yeah, or in a concert that everyone was going to anyway. Yes. Right. For all this musical acts,” said Pavlich.
The senator and congresswoman are selling out auditoriums in deep red states. It’s still early into the Trump administration but if the crowd sizes Sanders and AOC are getting are any indication of voter enthusiasm the midterms could be quite dramatic.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. Source - PBS News Hour transcripts.
Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol denied criminal charges that he led an insurrection when he declared martial law late last year. Prosecutors said the former president tried to paralyze state institutions like Parliament. Yoon's lawyers said he was fully within his constitutional authority. If Yoon is convicted of mounting an insurrection, the charges are punishable by life in prison or death. (PBS News Hour)
Hungary's Parliament passed a new constitutional amendment that bans public LGBTQ events. The vote was a resounding 140 yes-votes, with only 21 against. The new amendment also says that Hungary's Constitution will only recognize two sexes, male and female, a basis for denying the gender identities of transgender people and others. (PBS News Hour)
In Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro underwent a lengthy 12-hour surgery for a bowel obstruction. The far right leader was hospitalized last week for abdominal pain stemming from when he was stabbed at a 2018 campaign event. Bolsonaro is expected to face trial on charges that he attempted to stage a coup after his election loss in 2022, efforts that were punctuated by riots led by his supporters. (PBS News Hour)
Both Arkansas and Indiana have moved to ban soda and candy from the food stamp programs in their states. They're the first to ask the Trump administration to remove those items from SNAP, which helps low-income Americans pay for groceries. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, says it is fast-tracking the state's requests. (PBS News Hour)
The number of abortions in the U.S. has increased since the Dobbs decision. According to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for abortion rights, there were just over a million clinician-provided abortions in states where it was legal in 2024. The numbers were up slightly from the previous year. The data further shows that the number of people who crossed state lines for the procedure dropped nearly 9%. (PBS News Hour)
For two years now, Sudan has been torn apart by civil war as the Sudanese Armed Forces have fought with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Millions of Sudanese have fled, many to neighboring Chad. The U.N. says it is now one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory, and caring for the millions in need has been made harder by the Trump administration's shutdown of USAID.
Puerto Rico had a massive power outage across the entire island. It put 1.4 million customers in the dark. The island has dealt with repeated outages since Hurricane Maria crushed its power grid in September of 2017. Power was eventually restored. (PBS News Hour)
The National Labor Relations Board protects workers' right to organize and investigates unfair labor practices. A whistleblower complaint filed by an IT staffer claims Elon Musk and his DOGE team gained access to sensitive data that could have led directly to a “significant cybersecurity breach.” (PBS News Hour)
The Trump administration wants to cut the federal funds that support public media. It would impact NPR, PBS and the roughly 1,500 local public media stations across the country. The White House drafted a memo that could make those cuts happen soon. (PBS News Hour)
While on a visit to Cambodia last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that country should resist protectionism, in apparent slight against U.S. tariffs. Cambodia is the last stop on Xi's weeklong tour of Southeast Asia, where he sought to present China as a more stable trading partner than the United States. Cambodia is a major exporter of clothing to the U.S. and was subject to an import tax of 49% before Trump paused many tariffs until July. (PBS News Hour)
The lead Hamas negotiator for ceasefire talks offered to swap all hostages held in Gaza for an agreed-upon number of Palestinians jailed in Israel. The offer came after Hamas reportedly rejected the latest Israeli proposal. Meantime, airstrikes killed at least 27 Palestinians as the lack of aid into Gaza threatens hundreds of thousands. Protests by Palestinians against Hamas also continued last week. (PBS News Hour)
In Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court upheld a very unique partial veto power that the governor has. Governor Tony Evers used that power back in 2023 to lock in a school funding increase for the next 400 years. At the heart of the case was Evers' ability to veto even the tiniest parts of a bill to dramatically alter its meaning. By striking individual words and numbers in the legislation, he approved more school revenue increases until literally the year 2425. (PBS News Hour)
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday challenging the constitutionality of a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires most private health insurance plans to cover preventive care at no cost to the patient. (PBS News Hour)
Officers with the Department of Homeland Security recently attempted to enter elementary schools in Los Angeles but were not allowed in. Agents claim to have been conducting a welfare check, not an immigration enforcement action. School administrators say DHS lied about having permission from caregivers to speak to students. (PBS News Hour)
Peruvian author and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has died. His novels, essays, articles, and columns often drew on his own experiences. He attended military academy as a boy and later wrote of military brutality. He joined a communist cell in his teens and later wrote against leftist society as one mired in poverty and injustice. His passion for politics led to an unsuccessful presidential run in 1990. Mario Vargas Llosa was 89 years old. (PBS News Hour)
Charismatic game show host Wink Martindale has died. He started as a radio deejay in his native Tennessee before quickly landing his own TV show, where, in 1956, a young Elvis Presley joined him for one of his first-ever televised interviews. Martindale hosted hits like "Gambit" in 1972 and he led the classic X's and O's puzzle game "Tic-Tac-Dough" that ran on CBS until 1985. Wink Martindale had been battling lymphoma. He was 91 years old.
By the Numbers
So infuriating. I don’t know how you do it. Amazing!