Tue | May 26, 2026

An ‘administrative error’ sent Maryland man to an El Salvador prison, ICE says

Published:Tuesday | April 1, 2025 | 9:02 PM
In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the US, alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presi
Uncredited
In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the US, alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)

President Donald Trump’ 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 US 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 US government “has never produced an iota of evidence” 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’s house, his lawyers’ complaint stated.

Abrego Garcia was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which activists say is rife with abuses and where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside.

Abrego Garcia’s wife later saw him in photos and video from the prison, identifying her husband through his distinctive tattoos and two scars on his head.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials admitted in a court filing on Monday to an “administrative error” in deporting him. The government’s acknowledgement sparked immediate uproar from immigration advocates while prompting Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials to repeat the allegation that he’s a gang member.

Abrego Garcia came to the US illegally from El Salvador around 2011, “fleeing gang violence,” according to his lawyers, and made his way to Maryland to join his older brother, a US citizen.

“Beginning 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,” the complaint states of his life in his native country.

Abrego Garcia later married a US 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 “verified” 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 “Westerns clique” in Long Island, New York, despite having never lived there.

Abrego Garcia filed for asylum, while his lawyer submitted a “voluminous evidentiary filing establishing his eligibility for protection and contesting the unfounded allegation of gang membership,” 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 “he has neither been convicted nor charged with any crime” 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.

“There are lots of things they could have done,” Sandoval-Moshenberg told The Associated Press. “But each one of those is in a court and gives him the opportunity to defend himself. And they didn’t do any of them. They just put him on an airplane.”

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