The Trump administration admitted in court documents this week that it accidentally deported an immigrant father in Maryland with protected legal status to an infamous megaprison in El Salvador, despite him not having any sort of criminal record, reported The Atlantic.
A lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been accused in 2019 of being a gang member with MS-13 by a police informant but had successfully defended his innocence after a stint in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, said that he has never heard of any other situation in which the government knowingly deported a man with protected status.
And despite admitting its error, the Trump administration maintains it can't order his return because he is now in Salvadoran custody and subject to that country's legal system.
This chain of events, which comes after the Trump administration has been accused of deporting multiple innocent people simply for having tattoos, triggered an explosion of outrage on social media.
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to an El Salvador super prison because ICE made an 'administrative error,'" wrote Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute. "Garcia won asylum so he couldn’t be removed by law. Trump’s attorneys say they can’t get him back. Convenient. Nobody at ICE will be punished for this error."
"I don’t care what the polls say about immigration, this is a moral and legal assault on the Constitution and humanity," wrote Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action. "Democratic leaders must publicly pressure the Trump administration to rescue Kilmar Abrego Garcia."
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"Any comment on this, @marcorubio? How about you, @JDVance? @elonmusk?" wrote podcaster Jon Favreau. "You just admitted to accidentally sending an innocent father from Maryland to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. And you refuse to do anything about it."
"If only we could have avoided this totally predictable mistake by a single branch of government checking its own sloppy work," wrote civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo. "If only another branch were designed to provide some sort of review or adjudication process. Oh well, El Salvador has Mr. Abrego Garcia now."
"Catholics, union members, believers in the Constitution, take note," wrote former Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA). "By the way I hope Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s family and legal team are looking at a Federal Tort Claims Act case once his horrific confinement is ended. Meaning the taxpayers could end up being on the hook for this incompetence."
