The Trump administration admitted in a court filing Monday that an “administrative error” and an “oversight” resulted in a Salvadoran man’s deportation and imprisonment in a supermax prison in El Salvador, despite a legal order prohibiting his removal there.
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director Robert Cerna said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was removed from the U.S. on March 15 as part of a series of deportation flights that sent hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, even though an immigration judge had granted him a legal protection from deportation.
Those flights are at the center of a court battle between the Justice Department and U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who blocked further deportations of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The March 15 deportation flights transported 238 Venezuelas and 23 Salvadorans, all of whom Trump administration officials described as members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs. Lawyers and relatives of many of the Venezuelans have strongly denied claims that their clients and loved ones are gang members.
The filings were made as part of a suit filed by attorneys for Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man and Maryland resident who received a legal status known as “withholding of removal” in 2019 after an immigration judge found that Abrego Garcia, who left his native country in 2011 at age 16, could face persecution by gangs if deported to El Salvador. His case was first reported by The Atlantic late Monday.
Although the Trump administration concedes it made a mistake when it deported Abrego Garcia, it is opposing a request for him to be brought back to the U.S. The government has argued Abrego Garcia is a danger to the community, alleging that he’s a member of the MS-13 gang.
The Justice Department has also argued that federal courts lack the authority to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, since he’s now being held by the Salvadoran government and no longer in U.S. custody. Even if they did have the power to order his return, the Justice Department said in a filing, there has been “no showing that El Salvador is even inclined to consider a request to release a detainee at the United States’ request.”
Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland, alongside his wife and their disabled 5-year-old son, both of whom are U.S. citizens, according to the court filings submitted by his lawyers. Before he was arrested by ICE last month, Abrego Garcia was routinely attending check-ins with the agency, the filings said. His lawyers said he has no criminal record in the U.S., a finding the government has not disputed.
In 2019, Abrego Garcia was standing outside of a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, soliciting work with three other men when he was arrested. His attorney said he was questioned about whether he was a gang member, and when he told police he was not, the police said they didn’t believe him and said they were calling ICE.
During immigration proceedings, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said the only evidence the government provided in support of his gang affiliation was that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie and that a confidential informant said he was an active MS-13 member in a branch of the gang that operates on Long Island, New York, where Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say he has never lived.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote in their initial complaint that their client’s name was not included in a Hyattsville City Police Department report about the Home Depot arrest, and said that the detective who authored the gang affiliation part of the report had been suspended.
An immigration judge ruled that the informant’s testimony was “proven and reliable,” but said that he should not be deported to El Salvador.
In a statement Tuesday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Abrego Garcia is “a member of the brutal MS-13 gang and was reportedly involved in human trafficking. Whether he be in El Salvador or a detention facility in the U.S. he should be locked up.”
Vice President JD Vance responded to media reports about the deportation on Tuesday, posting on X that “It is telling that the entire American media is going to run a propaganda operation today making you think an innocent ‘father of 3’ was apprehended by a gulag,” adding that Abrego Garcia “is an illegal immigrant with no right to be in our country.”
contributed to this report.
