The Trump administration acknowledged Monday in a court filing that the deportation of a Maryland man to his native El Salvador last month was a mistake, reports Politico. The case involves Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had protected legal status to be in the US but was among three planeloads of immigrants sent to El Salvador in March. "Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error," the government wrote in the filing, per the Atlantic. Justice Department lawyers added that the US was powerless to correct the mistake because Abrego Garcia was now in the custody of El Salvador, reports CNN.
Abrego Garcia received his protected legal status in 2019, per the New York Times. In that year, officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency attempted to deport him because they said a confidential informant told them Abrego Garcia was a member of the violent MS-13 gang. (The Atlantic has the most complete details on this aspect of the story, which stems from a detention in a Home Deport parking lot.) Abrego Garcia denied the allegation, and an immigration judge blocked his deportation, ruling that he faced a risk of torture or persecution should he be sent home. He has since been living in Maryland with his wife and 5-year-old child, both of whom are US citizens.
Though they acknowledged the error, the Justice Department attorneys added that they don't think Abrego Garcia is at risk of being tortured or killed. "The government would not have removed any alien to El Salvador ... if it believed that doing so would violate the United States' obligations" under an anti-torture treaty, they wrote, per Politico. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance dismissed critics of the mistaken deportation. He "was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here," Vance tweeted, though no court documents describe him as a convicted gang member. (Joe Rogan is not a fan of the deportations.)
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