The Trump administration has confirmed that it inappropriately deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, despite his legal protection against removal.
This late admission may not mean much for Mr. Garcia, considering that the government refuses to take steps to facilitate his return to the United States.
According to legal documents reviewed by The Hill, this administrative error led to Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in a high-security prison in El Salvador.
The incident came to light when Abrego Garcia’s relatives recognized his face in a video showing a group of migrants being transferred to a Salvadoran prison. “Despite ICE’s awareness of his protected status against deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was nonetheless deported due to an administrative error,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a legal filing cited by The Hill.
The documents reveal that U.S. authorities are not willing to secure Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return. He is currently incarcerated in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum-security prison where detainees are subjected to torture and other degrading treatments. “The United States does not have custody of Abrego Garcia,” the DOJ noted, acknowledging the existence of “complex redress issues” in this case.
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia last month as part of an operation targeting individuals suspected of gang affiliation. In total, 260 people were sent to El Salvador, mainly Venezuelan nationals accused of belonging to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, along with a smaller number of Salvadorans suspected of ties to the MS-13 gang. However, Abrego Garcia’s legal representatives strongly deny any criminal association on his part.
Defense attorneys, quoted by The Hill, vigorously dispute the allegations of gang ties, emphasizing the complete lack of tangible evidence. “Despite accusations of gang affiliation, the U.S. government has never provided a shred of proof to support this claim,” they stated in their initial legal filing. They also pointed out that their client fled El Salvador to escape gang violence and that he was deported “with full knowledge that he would be immediately imprisoned and subjected to inhumane treatment in the country’s most notorious prison.”
Abrego Garcia’s case is particularly concerning: he is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a disabled U.S. citizen child. He applied for asylum in 2019, a process that granted him legal protection from deportation. Nevertheless, he was still removed, highlighting the risks associated with the Trump administration’s immigration policy, characterized by mass deportations without proper legal safeguards.
Abrego Garcia is not the only legally protected individual deported by the Trump administration. Several other immigrants, including a Venezuelan professional soccer player, were also sent to El Salvador. The soccer player was accused of gang affiliation solely because of a Real Madrid tattoo on his hand, according to multiple U.S. media reports.
