The Trump administration admitted that it mistakenly sent an immigrant, living in Maryland, to notorious mega-prison CECOT. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE and mistakenly deported last month, officials, including Trump’s solicitor general, admitted in court.
An official wrote in a new court document that Abrego Garcia was “removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.”
While the administration has officially conceded it mistakenly sent him to El Salvador, Vice President J.D. Vance took to social media to defend the administration’s actions. Vance claimed that the court document stated that Abrego Garcia was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to reside in the United States.
Vance’s comments came after a federal judge ordered Trump officials to provide depositions about its lack of action in the Abrego Garcia case. U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis said there is no evidence that Abrego Garcia is a gang member. His attorneys also said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.
Abrego Garcia is married to an American citizen and was deported despite a court ruling forbidding such action. The deportee held an immigration court order from 2019 preventing his deportation to El Salvador over concerns of his safety. He was permitted by the Homeland Security Department to work legally in the United States and was a sheet apprentice, according to his attorney.
Abrego Garcia’s case was among 238 people – mostly Venezuelan – residing in the U.S. that the Trump administration deported without due process last month. Many of them were deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 without court review, accusing them of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua. A New York Times investigation into the matter found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang.
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said that Abrego Garcia did not undergo due process before his detention and deportation. It is within every individual’s right in the U.S. that they receive due process, including review by a judge, before receiving any sentence or punishment.
The Supreme Court has since issued an order following the lower-court order. The ruling, of which there were no dissents, said that the lower-court order “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
The case has prompted friction between the current executive branch and the judicial branch. In its Sunday filing, the Department of Justice argued that “the federal courts have no authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner.”
The Trump administration has asserted the ruling does not require them to take action to retrieve Abrego Garcia from the prison. It instead argued the decision lies with El Salvador whether or not he is released.
The president met up with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele just days after the Supreme Court ruling. When a reporter asked if Abrego Garcia would be returned to the U.S., Bukele called the question “preposterous” and said he would not release him.
If the Trump administration ignores this court order and does not return Abrego Garcia to the United States it will be disobeying all nine members of the Supreme Court.
