The Trump administration acknowledged in a court application that the El Salvador man was deported and imprisoned in a super jail in El Salvador, despite a legal decree prohibiting removal there.
Robert Cerna, acting director of the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Kilmar Abrego Garcia was evacuated from the U.S. on March 15, a series of deported flights, even as an immigration judge granted him a withdrawal lawsuit from legal protection.
The flights were the center of a court battle between the Justice Department and U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who further deported alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Trump administration invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act of Alien Enemies Act.
The deported flight on March 15 transported 238 Venezuelans and 23 El Salvadorians, all of which were described as members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs. Many Venezuelan lawyers and relatives strongly deny that their clients and loved ones are members of the gang.
The documents were part of a lawsuit filed by Abrego Garcia of El Salvador, who received legal status called “withdrawal” in 2019 after an immigration judge discovered that Abrego Garcia had left his home country at the age of 16 in 2011 and he might leave Salvador at the age of 16. His case was first reported on Monday afternoon at the Atlantic.
Although the Trump administration admitted that it made a mistake when it expelled Abrego Garcia, it opposed a request to bring him back to the United States, the administration believes that Abrego Garcia poses a danger to the community, accusing him of being a member of the MS-13 gang.
The Justice Department also argued that federal courts lacked the power to promote Abrego Garcia’s return, as he is now detained by the El Salvador government and no longer in the United States. The Justice Department said in the lawsuit that even if they do have the right to order his reward, there is no indication that El Salvador is even inclined to consider a request to release detainees in the United States. ”
Abrego Garcia lives in Maryland with his wife and his 5-year-old son of a disabled person, both U.S. citizens, according to a court application filed by his attorney. Abrego Garcia regularly signed in with the agency before being arrested by ICE last month, the documents said. His lawyer said he had no criminal record in the United States, and the government did not object to the discovery.
In 2019, Abrego Garcia stood outside Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, recruiting jobs with three other men when she was arrested. His lawyer said whether he questioned whether he was a gang member and when he told police that he was not, the police said they didn’t believe him and said they were playing ice.
In the immigration process, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the only evidence the government has provided to support his gang affiliation shows that he was wearing a Chicago bull hat and hoodie, and a confidential person said he was an active MS-13 member of the gang run on Abrego Garcia’s long-term island, who said he had never been in New York, and he said he had never had it.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney wrote in the initial complaint that their client’s name was not included in the Hyatt City Police Department report about the Home Depot arrest and said detectives who wrote the affiliation of the report had been suspended.
An immigration judge ruled that the informant’s testimony was “proven and reliable” but said he should not be expelled from El Salvador.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday that Abrego Garcia was a “brutal MS-13 gang member who was reportedly involved in human trafficking. He should be held whether he is in El Salvador or in the U.S. detention center.”
