ICE" 'Administrative error' led to deportation
By: Bart Jansen
USA today
..... The Trump administration acknowledged Monday [03/31/2025] "an administrative error" led to the deportation of a native of el Salvador but the government has no interest in returning the alleged member of MS-13 to his wife and his child with a disability, according to court documents.
.....
Kilmar Armando, Abrego-Garcia, a resident of Beltsville, Maryland, was among the hundreds of alleged members of crime gangs MS-13 and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua the government expelled from the U.S. to El Salvador on March 15. [2025]
..... but he had won a court order form an immigration judge in 2019 that was supported to prevent his removal. His wife, Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura, and his 5-year-old child with disabilities, who are both U.S. citizens, field a lawsuit March 24 [2025] calling for his return.
..... In filings Monday, [03/31/2025] government officials acknowledged the administrative mistake hat sent Garcia to a notorious prison in el Salvador.
..... "This removal was an error,' Robert Cerna, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations, said in a sworn statement.
..... Vice President JD Vance said in a post Tuesday [04/01/2025] on social media that Abrego-Garcia has "no legal right: to be in the U.S.
.....
"The man is an illegal immigrant with no right to be in our country," Vance said.
..... The case comes amid legal challenges to the Trump administration;s mass deportation. President Donald Trump declared MS-12 and Tren de Aragua foreign terrorist organizations and moved to remove alleged members under a variety of immigration statutes.
.....
Trump also invoked the Alien enemies Act to remove alleged members of Tren de Aragua more hastily. but Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. district Court for the District of Columbia, temporarily blocked the deportation under the Alien enemies Act until the suspects had been given a chance to deny their membership in the gang.
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Abrego-Garcia was ordered deported in March 2019, after a confidential informant testified that he was an active member of the MS-13 gang, according to government lawyers.
..... He then applied for asylum, asking for protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture if he were returned to El Salvador. an immigration judge found he was deportable but withheld his removal in October 2019.
..... ICE stopped Abrego-Garcia March 12, 2[025] telling him that his immigration status had changed, according to his wife's lawsuit. After being detained and questioned, eh was sent to Harlingen, Texas, where he was flown under Title 8 of the mitigation laws to El Salvador's CECOT prison.
..... His wife recognized him among detainees in a video from the prison because of his tattoos and head scars, according to the lawsuit.
..... Cerna said the deportations to El Salvador were designed to include only people who faced no impediments to removal. Abrego-Garcia had been an alternate on the flight but moved up on the list as others were dropped off.
..... "Though, administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador," Cerna said. "this was an oversight, and the removal and Abrego-Garcia;s purported membership in MS-13."
..... Lawyers said Abrego-Garcia has been found a danger to the community, so the public interest is against ordering the government "to orchestrate his return to the United States."