Sent to El Salvador despite protected legal status

[struggle4progress]

By Patrick Smith and Gary Grumbach

The United States government accidentally deported a man to El Salvador due to an "administrative error," landing him in a notorious mega-jail and leaving him stuck there in legal limbo, according to legal papers filed on Monday.

Kilmar Arbrego Garcia came to the U.S. in 2011 from El Salvador and is a legal resident protected by a 2019 court order that prevented him from being sent back to his home country.

But, in court papers filed Monday, the government admitted that "on March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error."

Garcia lives in Maryland with his wife and 5-year-old child, who is autistic and intellectually disabled. The couple both work full-time, the filing says. NBC4 Washington first reported the deportation, and The Atlantic first reported the "administrative error" ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-was-sent-el-salvador-due-administrative-error-protected-legal-stat-rcna199010

[struggle4progress]

1. Jayapal on the Unlawful Abduction and Deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Ranking Member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, released the following statement regarding the abduction and deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia by the Trump Administration, which has since admitted that he was accidentally picked up due to an ‘administrative error’:

“Whether it is Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, Khalil Mahmoud, Alfredo Juarez, Lewelyn Dixon, Fabian Schmidt, Ranjani Srinivasan, or Rebecca Burke, the Trump administration is out of control with indiscriminate, and often illegal actions, in the name of so-called immigration enforcement. They have been disappearing people from their homes in the middle of the night, kidnapping people in the middle of the street, deporting individuals to prison camps, and flagrantly violating people’s human, civil, and due process rights.

“In one of the most jaw-dropping of these cases, Mr. Abrego Garcia, a father who fled gang violence and was granted legal protection in the United States, was mistakenly deported to a Salvadoran gulag. Now, the administration claims they have no legal recourse to remove him from the Cecot mega-prison, a facility that reportedly allows no visits from family, no letters from home, and only lets people out of their cells for 30 minutes a day.

“Even as the administration has admitted this terrible miscarriage of justice, Vice President Vance has continued to go on Twitter and spread false information about the deportation. It is simply outrageous that the administration refuses to require the release of an individual it mistakenly deported even as it pays El Salvador $6 million a year in taxpayer dollars to illegally imprison people in violation of people’s fundamental due process rights ...

https://jayapal.house.gov/2025/04/01/jayapal-statement-on-the-unlawful-abduction-and-deportation-of-kilmar-armando-abrego-garcia/

[struggle4progress]

2. rump spokeswoman claims 'lots of evidence' deported Maryland man in MS-13

... “This removal was an error,” an ICE official stated in an affidavit filed Monday in Maryland federal court.

The filing claimed Abrego Garcia’s arrest last month was “due to his prominent role in MS-13,” but court records did not explain the evidence against him.

On Tuesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there were multiple pieces of proof of Abrego Garcia’s ties to the brutal El Salvadoran gang.

“There’s a lot of evidence, and the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have that evidence, and I saw it this morning,” she told reporters.

The Atlantic story said Abrego Garcia shares a 5-year-old disabled son with his American wife and works as a union sheetmetal apprentice ...

https://www.al.com/politics/2025/04/who-is-kilmar-abrego-garcia-trump-spokeswoman-claims-lots-of-evidence-deported-maryland-man-in-ms-13.html

Fascists can't even get their story straight

[struggle4progress]

3. ICE admits to an administrative error

ByLaura Romero
April 1, 2025, 12:53 AM

... Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia who has a U.S. citizen wife and 5-year-old child is currently at CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador.

The filing is part of a new lawsuit filed by Abrego Garcia's attorneys who are requesting that the government of El Salvador return him to the U.S. after being sent there "because of an administrative error."

Abrego Garcia's attorneys said that he "is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang" and said that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation."

In response to the error, the government has acknowledged the error but said in a filing that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor can the court order El Salvador to return him ...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ice-admits-administrative-error-after-maryland-man-el/story?id=120359991

[struggle4progress]

4. administration admits Maryland man sent to El Salvador prison by mistake

... "The government's filing was pretty shocking because they admitted everything that we alleged," Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the lawyer representing Abrego Garcia and his family, told NPR.

Although Justice Department lawyers acknowledge the mistake in Abrego Garcia's case, they say there is nothing federal officials can do because he is now in custody of another country.

And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday doubled down on his deportation, pointing to his links to MS-13 — which Abrego Garcia's lawyers dispute.

This latest case adds to the growing judicial scrutiny about the deportations, and has even prompted some consternation from one of Trump's allies. Joe Rogan, the popular host of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast who endorsed Trump last year, this week raised concerns with potential errors in the El Salvador deporations ...

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347427/maryland-el-salvador-error

[struggle4progress]

5. ICE says deporting Maryland man with protected status was a mistake

... NBC Washington repeatedly asked ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department what happened to Abrego Garcia. The government provided no information until Tuesday that they had deported him.

After the deportation flights, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked at a press briefing how Trump administration officials determined everyone they detained and deported had a criminal record.

“I can ensure the American people that Customs and Border Patrol and ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are sure about the identities of the individuals who were on these planes and the threat that they posed to our homeland,” she said.

NBC Washington found no local criminal record for Abrego Garcia – not even a traffic ticket ...

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/ice-says-deporting-maryland-man-with-protected-status-was-a-mistake/3880592/

[struggle4progress]

6. ICE blames 'error' for deportation of man with protected legal status

Last edited Tue Apr 1, 2025, 05:59 PM - Edit history (1)

...on Monday, acting Ice field office director Robert Cerna described the deportation in a court declaration as “an error”. He said that Abrego-Garcia was “not on the initial manifest of the … flight to be removed to El Salvador” but “rather, he was an alternate”.

As other detainees “were removed from the flight for various reasons”, Abrego-Garcia “moved up the list and was assigned to the flight”, Cerna said.

He added: “The manifest did not indicate that Abrego-Garcia should not be removed.

“Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13.

This removal was an error.”

In the filing, the administration said that it no longer has custody of Abrego-Garcia and therefore does not have ability to bring him back to the US ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/ice-error-deported-maryland-man-el-salvador

[Rebl2]

7. Kristi

Noem should have to go down there and bring Garcia back. I know there’s no chance of that happening.

[struggle4progress]

8. "Why didn't she bring him back when she went down?" is a good question

[Rebl2]

9. I agree!