President Donald Trump鈥 s administration has acknowledged mistakenly deporting a Maryland man with protected legal status to a notorious El Salvador prison last month, but is arguing against returning him to the United States because of his alleged gang ties and the U.S. government’s lack of power over the Central American nation.
Lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, maintain he is not affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang and argue the U.S. government 鈥渉as never produced an iota of evidence鈥 that he does.
Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore on March 12 after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice in Baltimore and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother鈥檚 house, his lawyers’ complaint stated.
The White House admits a "clerical error" was to blame for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man with protected legal status to a notorious El Salvador prison. Still, it asserts the man was an MS-13 gang member and will not be allowed to return to the U.S. (AP Video / April 1, 2025)
Abrego Garcia was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, is rife with abuses and where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside. Abrego Garcia鈥檚 wife later saw him in photos and video from the prison, identifying her husband through his distinctive tattoos and two scars on his head.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials admitted in a court filing on Monday to an 鈥渁dministrative error鈥 in deporting him. The government鈥檚 acknowledgment sparked immediate uproar from immigration advocates while prompting Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials to repeat the allegation that he鈥檚 a gang member.
MS-13 allegation stems from a 2019 arrest
Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. illegally from El Salvador around 2011, 鈥渇leeing gang violence,鈥 according to his lawyers, and made his way to Maryland to join his older brother, a U.S. citizen.
鈥淏eginning around 2006, gang members had stalked, hit, and threatened to kidnap and kill him in order to coerce his parents to succumb to their increasing demands for extortion,鈥 the complaint states of his life in his native country.
Abrego Garcia later married a U.S. citizen and worked in construction to support her, their son and her two children from a previous relationship.
The allegations about his affiliation with MS-13 stem from a 2019 arrest outside a Maryland Home Depot store, where he and other young men were looking for work, according to the complaint.
County police asked if he was a gang member and demanded information about other gang members. After explaining that he wasn’t a gang member and had no information, he was turned over to ICE.
ICE argued against Abrego Garcia’s release at a subsequent immigration court hearing because local police had 鈥渧erified鈥 his gang membership, the complaint said. The evidence they cited included his wearing of a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie and a confidential informant’s claim that Abrego Garcia belonged to MS-13’s 鈥淲esterns clique鈥 in Long Island, New York, despite having never lived there.
Abrego Garcia filed for asylum, while his lawyer submitted a 鈥渧oluminous evidentiary filing establishing his eligibility for protection and contesting the unfounded allegation of gang membership,鈥 the complaint stated. In response, ICE cited the information previously provided by local police.
An immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia’s asylum request in October 2019 but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador. He was released after ICE did not appeal.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say 鈥渉e has neither been convicted nor charged with any crime鈥 and has fully complied with the conditions of his protected status, checking in with ICE yearly.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said U.S. government lawyers had multiple opportunities to try legally to deport him, including appealing the judge’s 2019 decision or deporting him elsewhere.
鈥淭here are lots of things they could have done,鈥 Sandoval-Moshenberg told The Associated Press. 鈥淏ut each one of those is in a court and gives him the opportunity to defend himself. And they didn鈥檛 do any of them. They just put him on an airplane.鈥
ICE calls deportation 鈥榓n oversight鈥
In its court filing on Monday, the Trump administration said ICE 鈥渨as aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador,鈥 but still deported Abrego Garcia 鈥渂ecause of an administrative error.鈥
An ICE official called his deportation to El Salvador 鈥渁n oversight鈥 in a statement submitted to the court on Monday.
Robert Cerna, ICE鈥檚 acting field office director of enforcement and removal operations, wrote that it was 鈥渃arried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia鈥檚 purported membership in MS-13.鈥
The administration argued against his return to the U.S., citing alleged gang ties and claiming that he is a danger to the community.
They also argued that the court lacks jurisdiction in the matter because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody.
The administration wrote that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys 鈥渄o not argue that the United States can exercise its will over a foreign sovereign. The most they ask for is a court order that the United States entreat 鈥 or even cajole 鈥 a close ally.鈥
In response to criticism, Vance posted a screenshot of court documents related to Abrego Garcia’s 2019 bond proceeding on the social platform X and wrote that 鈥渋t鈥檚 gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”
Abrego Garcia鈥檚 removal comes as Trump follows up on campaign promises of mass deportations. Last month, he , granting himself powers to summarily deport to a notorious El Salvador prison hundreds of Venezuelans who were deemed by U.S. authorities to be associated with the Venezuelan gang .
Abrego Garcia was deported at the same time on March 15 but under the U.S.鈥檚 general immigration laws, not the wartime powers act, the White House said.
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Washington, Sarah Brumfield in Baltimore and Brian Witte in Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland, contributed to this report.
