President Donald Trump’s administration erroneously deported a Salvadoran man as part of three high-profile deportation flights to El Salvador this month, after a judge’s ruling prohibited the man’s removal to his home country, according to a court filing on Monday.
Lawyers for the man, Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, disputed U.S. government allegations that he was a member of the MS-13 gang and demanded his immediate return to the U.S. The government, however, said it did not have the legal authority to bring him back from El Salvador.
On March 15, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The administration said it sent two flights to El Salvador that day carrying deportees processed under the rarely used wartime statute and a third flight carrying people deported under other rules.
In Monday’s filing, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Abrego-Garcia was wrongfully placed on the third flight despite a 2019 judgment granting him protection.
“Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador,” ICE official Robert Cerna said in the court document. “This was an oversight, and 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.”
The Trump administration invoked the 18th-century law to deport Venezuelans and Salvadoreans it alleges are violent gang members as part of its sweeping immigration crackdown.
Representatives for some deportees have denied any gang ties, and U.S. courts have temporarily blocked use of the law while hearing legal challenges.
Abrego-Garcia’s lawyers on March 28 called on the U.S. District Court in Maryland to order his return to the U.S. and halt U.S. funding of his detention at the mega-prison in El Salvador, which they called a “notorious torture chamber.”
In a court filing on Monday, the Trump administration said the U.S. government did not have the authority to bring him back since he was no longer in U.S. custody.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said “intelligence reports” showed Abrego-Garcia was a member of MS-13 and involved in human trafficking. She provided no further details.
Abrego-Garcia’s wife and five-year-old son are U.S. citizens and reside in Maryland, the family’s legal complaint said.
Abrego-Garcia was pulled over by ICE officers while driving on March 12 and handcuffed while his son, who has autism and is unable to communicate verbally, was in the backseat of the car, the complaint said.
The ICE official said the agency was aware of the earlier court order blocking Abrego-Garcia’s removal. He was not on the March 15 flight’s initial manifest, but was assigned to the flight as “an alternate” as other people were removed from the flight for various reasons, the official said.
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