The Trump administration has been ordered to arrange the return of a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in his home country.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia – a protected legal US resident who has lived in Maryland since 2011 – was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to his home country last month.
However, an immigration judge ruled in 2019 that Mr Garcia should be shielded from deportation to El Salvador as he likely faced persecution from local gangs.
After legal challenges were filed by Mr Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura, US District Judge Paula Xinis ruled the Trump administration must arrange for his return by 7 April.
She added the deportation was “an illegal act”, and heard from Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni that Mr Garcia should not have been removed.
He said he could not tell the judge on what authority Mr Garcia was arrested, why he was sent to El Salvador, and why the US could not retrieve him.
The Trump administration admitted on Monday that deporting Mr Garcia was an “administrative error”, but said they could not bring him back as they do not have jurisdiction over El Salvador.
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US vice president JD Vance and White House officials also insist that the 29-year-old was a member of MS-13 – an international criminal gang formed by immigrants who had fled El Salvador‘s civil war to protect Salvadoran immigrants from rival gangs.
The group was declared a terrorist organisation by the Trump administration last month. Mr Vance cited an anonymous testimony in the 2019 ruling that said Mr Garcia had been a member of the gang in New York – where he has never lived.
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Mr Garcia’s lawyers maintain he is not affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang and argue the US government “has never produced an iota of evidence” that he is.
Speaking at a rally at a community centre in Hyattsville, Maryland, Ms Sura urged supporters to keep fighting for her husband “and all the Kilmars out there whose stories are still waiting to be heard”.
“It’s a journey that no one ever should ever have to suffer, a nightmare that feels endless”, she added.
