The Trump administration admitted to mistakenly deporting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, to El Salvador due to an administrative error. Despite having legal protection from deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was sent to the country and is now in custody at CECOT, a notorious prison.
Abrego Garcia, who fled gang violence in El Salvador in 2011, was granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge in 2019, preventing his deportation to El Salvador. However, he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March, accused of being an MS-13 gang member, a claim his lawyers dispute. The deportation was carried out after he was mistakenly placed on a flight manifest to El Salvador.
The administration argues it cannot return him because he is now in Salvadoran custody. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Abrego Garcia was a gang member involved in human trafficking, though no specific evidence was provided. His lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, criticized the administration's inaction, stating, "Defendants have already washed their hands of Plaintiff, of his U.S.-citizen wife, of his autistic nonverbal five-year-old U.S.-citizen child."
Abrego Garcia's legal team is seeking a preliminary injunction to compel the U.S. government to request his return from El Salvador. A court hearing is scheduled for Friday (April 4). Despite the administration's acknowledgment of the error, it maintains that Abrego Garcia poses a danger due to alleged gang ties, which his lawyers continue to contest.