Topline
The White House insisted Tuesday a Salvadoran man it deported back to his home country by mistake earlier this month would not be returned to the U.S. and is a gang member—the latest case of the Trump administration allegedly sending innocent migrants to a Salvadorian mega-prison known for human rights violations without due process.
Authorities escort migrants deported from the U.S. in March 2025 through El Salvador's Terrorism ... More
Key Facts
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday Kilmar Abrego Garcia “will not return to our country,” alleging, without providing evidence, that he “was a member, actually a leader, of the brutal MS-13 gang” and there is “credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking.”
Leavitt also acknowledged Abrego Garcia was deported due to a “clerical error,” confirming a sworn declaration Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office Director Robert Cerna that his “removal was an error” and “an oversight.”
Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador at the age of 16 in 2011 after he faced threats from gang members there attempting to extort his parents and was granted protection from deportation in 2019 by a judge who determined he could be targeted by gangs if he returned, according to court filings.
Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and their 5-year-old son, and worked as a full-time sheetmetal apprentice; he has no criminal record in the U.S. or El Salvador, his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a court filing.
Abrego Garcia was arrested by ICE officials on March 12 and deported to El Salvador on March 15 on one of three controversial flights the Trump administration executed hours after Trump implemented the Alien Enemies Act—leading to a heated court battle with a judge who ordered the Trump administration to turn around the flights and paused implementation of the executive order.
Cerna acknowledged that ICE was aware of Abrego Garcia’s protected status at the time of his removal, but that he slipped through the cracks because he was not on the initial list of migrants subject to deportation to El Salvador and was moved up the list as others were removed for various reasons—the final flight manifest, Cerna wrote, “did not indicate that Abrego-Garcia should not be removed.”
What Evidence Has The Government Cited In Claiming Abrego Garcia Is Ms-13?
The allegations stem from Abrego Garcia’s arrest at a Home Depot in 2019. He was inquiring about a job along with three other men when they were approached by Prince George County police, who did not say why they were arresting Abrego Garcia, Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a court filing. Police questioned him about whether he was a gang member or had any information about gang members, but he said he did not, according to court papers. ICE detained him a short time later and began removal proceedings, arguing they had reason to believe he was a gang member. The evidence ICE presented, Sandoval-Moshenberg wrote, was that Abrego Garcia was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie when he was arrested at Home Depot and that a confidential informant said he was a member of the MS-13 outpost on Long Island, New York, a state he’s never been to, according to his attorney. A judge granted him protected status on the basis he was likely to face gang threats if he returned to El Salvador and he was subsequently released from ICE custody.
Key Background
Abrego Garcia is among multiple migrants deported to El Salvador on the March 15 flights who the Trump administration has claimed were gang members, despite insistence from their loved ones and lawyers they had no gang affiliation or even criminal records. The Trump administration ordered the deportations hours after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority that allows the government to quickly deport migrants deemed an immediate threat to the safety of U.S. citizens. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered Trump to pause the order hours after it took effect and turn around flights that had yet to land on foreign soil—prompting an ongoing court battle over whether the Trump administration defied the order. Government lawyers have repeatedly refused to hand over information to Boasberg about when, exactly, the deportations occurred, and under what authority. Regardless of the Trump administration’s reasoning for deporting the migrants, Boasberg ruled last week that all of them were “entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all.” The Trump administration has also alleged Boasberg doesn’t have the authority to usurp an executive order and on Friday asked the Supreme Court to lift his order temporarily halting the Alien Enemies Act from taking effect.
Who Are The Others Erroneously Deported To El Salvador?
A Venezuelan makeup artist seeking asylum in the U.S. because he faced persecution in his home country for being gay and for his opposition to the Venezuelan government was sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot, on March 15, according to his lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski. She said immigration officials accused the 31-year-old, whose first name is Andry, of being linked to the gang Tren de Aragua because of his tattoos. A barber from Venezuela, Franco José Caraballo Tiapa, 26, is among those included in a list obtained by CBS of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador on March 15. Immigration officials also linked his tattoos to Tren de Aragua, though he has no criminal history in the U.S. and Venezuelan officials said he has no history there either, CBS reported. A Venezuelan professional soccer player, Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, was also deported to El Salvador after U.S. immigration officials alleged last year his tattoos were linked to gang affiliation, USA Today reported, citing his attorney, Linette Tobin, who said the tattoo in question was of a soccer ball and rosary.
Tangent
Vice President JD Vance, responding to revelations about the erroneous deportation, said on X early Tuesday Abrego Garcia’s deportation was justified because “he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here,” suggesting that Cerna said in his deposition Abrego Garcia had been previously convicted. Cerna said “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,” though he did not say definitively the government had evidence Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and his deposition does not reference a conviction.
Further Reading
Judge Boasberg Rejects Trump Request For Deportation Flights Under Alien Enemies Act—Again (Forbes)
Trump Administration Wants Judge Removed After Allegations It Ignored His Court Order (Forbes)
