(The Hill) – The Trump administration acknowledged late Monday that it had mistakenly deported a Salvadoran man protected from removal, sending him to a facility in El Salvador where they argue they are unable to secure his return.
The filing came in a case brought by the family of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after his wife recognized him in footage released of a group of migrants the Trump administration sent to a Salvadoran prison.
“Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the Justice Department wrote in the court filing.
The filing went on to state that they do not believe they can secure Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT.
“The United States does not have custody over Abrego Garcia. They acknowledge that there may be ‘difficult questions of redressability’ in this case, reflecting their recognition that Defendants do not have ‘the power to produce’ Abrego Garcia from CECOT in El Salvador,” DOJ wrote.
“The most they ask for is a court order that the United States entreat—or even cajole—a close ally in its fight against transnational cartels.”
Abrego Garcia applied for asylum in 2019 and was granted protections by an immigration judge, prohibiting him from being removed.
But he was nonetheless among some 260 men the Trump administration sent to El Salador, alleging they were gang members.
While the bulk of those removed were Venezuelans alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang, a smaller number of Salvadoran nationals were deported amid accusations they are members of the MS-13 gang.
The filing lays bare the risks associated with the Trump administration’s removal of migrants to El Salvador without hearings or other review.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have denied he has any affiliation with the gang.
“Although he has been accused of general ‘gang affiliation, the U.S. government has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation,” they wrote in an initial filing, noting that he left El Salvador to flee gang violence.
They argue that he was sent “to El Salvador knowing that he would be immediately incarcerated and tortured in that country’s most notorious prison.”
Abrego Garcia is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a “disabled U.S.-citizen child.”
