Leavitt Takes No Prisoners In Battle With Reporter Over Gang-Member Deportations

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt unloaded on a reporter who asked, during a Monday press gaggle, whether President Donald Trump’s administration was profiling and detaining alleged gang members based solely on their clothing.

The reporter asked about the criteria being used by the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to positively identify those associated with violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua — many of whom are being targeted for deportation to a Salvadoran prison under the Alien Enemies Act — and noted that certain tattoos, symbols, and clothing items were a part of that list.

WATCH:

????HOLY SMOKES! White House @PressSec Karoline Leavitt just TORCHED a "reporter" for claiming that illegal immigrants are being PROFILED and deported for nothing more than their clothing choice:

"That's not true, actually…Have you talked to the agents who have been putting… pic.twitter.com/cz0pRLXQsh

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 31, 2025

“That alone is enough to get someone classified as TdA and sent to El Salvador,” the reporter claimed, despite his own earlier acknowledgement that they had to meet eight separate criteria in order to be classified as such.

“That’s not true, actually,” Leavitt shot back.

“According to this document, it is,” he tried again.

“No, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the agents — have you talked to the agents who have been putting their lives on the line to detain these foreign terrorists who have been terrorizing our communities?!”

“TDA is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women!” Leavitt continued. “And our agents on the front lines take deporting these people with the utmost seriousness, and there is a litany of criteria that they use to ensure that these individuals qualify as foreign terrorists and to ensure that they qualify for deportation!”

“And the president made it incredibly clear to the American public that there would be a mass deportation campaign — of not just foreign terrorists, but also illegal criminal aliens who have been wreaking havoc on American communities,” she said. “And shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals — this is a vicious gang … this is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women!”