Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, was mistakenly deported to a Salvadoran prison despite a court ruling that protected him from being sent back to his native country. Garcia, who his lawyers claim fled El Salvador at the age of 16, has lived in the US since 2011 and has a family here.
Though the Trump administration admitted to the error, they subsequently argued that they couldn’t return Garcia to the US, where court documents confirm he has been living and has a family.
Garcia’s attorneys have asserted that he sought refuge in the United States after fleeing gang violence and that he has no criminal record or affiliations with any gangs. The US government, however, contended that Garcia might have been at risk of torture or worse in the notorious CECOT prison, yet they proceeded with his deportation.
According to Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego García’s attorney, there has been no previous instance of someone with protected legal status being knowingly deported by the government. The attorneys argued that the government overlooked legal procedures and deported Abrego García to El Salvador.
In March, following a similar procedure, the Trump administration deported over 250 Venezuelans to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, labeling them as members of a criminal gang.
Upon seeing a picture of CECOT prison in a news article, where prisoners’ faces were obscured, Garcia’s wife identified him through his tattoos and two head scars.
