(NewsNation) — A Salvadorian national living in Maryland who had received protection from removal was deported in March to El Salvador, the Justice Department admitted in court papers filed Monday.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was stopped on March 12 by Immigration and Customs officers who told him his immigration status had changed, according to the Justice Department. The DOJ said he was questioned about gang affiliation and transferred to a detention center in Texas.
“On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in their Monday filing.
Salvadorian man’s family sues government officials
The next day, a news article contained a picture of detainees entering El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. Abrego Garcia’s wife identified her husband based on his tattoos and head scars, the government said.
Abrego Garcia’s two U.S. citizen family members have now sued the government officials. They are asking a U.S. district court judge to order the federal government to request that El Salvador return Abrego Garcia. The family is also asking the government to stop paying El Salvador compensation to house Abrego Garcia.
The Justice Department opposes those requests. It argues that there must be a person within the jurisdiction of the District Court for a judge to be able to make a judgment about the custody of Abrego Garcia.
TOPSHOT – Members of the criminal gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) are escorted by officers of the National Police in Tegucigalpa on February 19, 2021, after the dismantling of an operations centre of the organisation found in the mountains of the department of Olancho, north of Honduras. (Photo by Orlando SIERRA / AFP) (Photo by ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images) 
DURHAM, NC – JANUARY 23: Cholo, shows off his gang tattoos and MS-13 hand signs on January 23, 2006 in Durham, North Carolina. Using his street name, Cholo, an American-born citizen of Salvadoran heritage, is a member of Mara Salvatrucha-13, the violent street gang formed by refugees of El Salvador who fled the country’s 1980’s – 90’s civil war and settled in Los Angeles, California. He was charged in August, 2005 for assault with a deadly weapon after shooting a rival gang member. Cholo came to Durham, North Carolina with his mother, older brother and sister in the early 1990’s. Cholo is a member of a MS-13 subset called VLS or Venice Locos Salvatrucha. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images) 
Inmates look on as they remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison, where hundreds of members of the MS-13 and 18 Street gangs are being held, in Tecoluca, El Salvador on January 27, 2025. The CECOT, the largest prison in Latin America and emblem of the war against gangs of the government of President Nayib Bukele, celebrates two years since it was inaugurated on February 1. (Photo by Marvin RECINOS / AFP) (Photo by MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images) 
10 December 2024, El Salvador, Toluca: Members of gangs take part in an activity that allows them to be outside for 30 minutes a day at the maximum security penitentiary “Center for the Compulsory Housing of Terrorism” (Cecot). Photo: Juan Carlos/dpa (Photo by Juan Carlos/picture alliance via Getty Images) 
In this photo provided by El Salvador’s presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., 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) 
More than 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by plane, including 238 alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 alleged members of the MS-13 gang, in San Salvador, on March 16. (Photo by El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images) 
SAN VICENTE, EL SALVADOR – FEBRUARY 6: Inmates are seen in cells at CECOT in Tecoluca on February 6, 2024 in San Vicente, El Salvador. On February of 2023 El Salvador inaugurated Latin America’s largest prison as part of President Nayib Bukele’s plan to fight gangs. Since then, the UN and NGOs have raised concern about the treatment of inmates, minors being held and suspects incarcerated as gang members without sufficient proof. Meanwhile, Bukele claims El Salvador’s murder rate has fallen from the world’s highest to the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. (Photo by Alex Peña/Getty Images) 
DURHAM, NC – JANUARY 23: Snoopy, 20 years, shows off his gang tattoos on January 23, 2006 in Durham, North Carolina. Going by his street name, Snoopy, an American-born citizen of El Salvadoran heritage, is a member of Mara Salvatrucha-13, the violent street gang formed by refugees of El Salvador who fled the country’s 1980’s – 90’s civil war and settled in Los Angeles, California. He joined MS-13 in California when he was 13 years. Snoopy came to Durham, North Carolina with his mother, younger brother and sister looking for work. Snoopy works at a Durham fast food restaurant and is often harassed by police for his gang tattoos. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
Because this Court has no power over a foreign sovereign — El Salvador — and because the DOJ does not believe the family will be successful in its request to return Abrego Garcia, the government argues his relatives do not have the ability to bring the case.
Abrego Garcia granted asylum previously
Abrego Garcia was ordered to be deported in 2019. During a court hearing on his case, ICE stated a confidential informant had alleged he was a member of the deadly MS-13 gang. However, a judge granted his asylum request.
He was denied bond after is detention in 2019. The 2019 Bond Memorandum that the government cites as proof of his MS-13 status relied on two pieces of evidence: a record of deportable/inadmissible alien from ICE and a gang field interview sheet from the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“Although Abrego Garcia was found removable, the immigration judge granted him withholding of removal to El Salvador in an order dated October 10, 2019,” the Justice Department stated in its filing.
On Tuesday, the White House made further allegations about Abrego Garcia.
“We also have credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “This individual was a member, actually a leader of the brutal MS-13 gang which this president has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”
Leavitt said because an immigration judge had originally granted asylum to Abrego Garcia, it is within the administration’s authority to revoke it.
Immigration judges are part of the Justice Department so are part of the Executive Branch.
“Foreign terrorists do not have legal Protections in the United States of America anymore and it is within the president’s executive Authority and power to deport these heinous individuals from American communities.”
NewsNation has reached out to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys for comment.
Overnight, Vice President JD Vance responded to criticism from Democratic operative Jon Favreau over the deportation on X.
“My comment is that, according to the court documents, you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here. My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize,” Vance said.
Abrego Garcia, however, was not convicted of gang-related crimes. He was accused in court.
The Trump administration also argues in its Monday filing an order as the family seeks “would harm the public interest by preventing the Executive from implementing a unified course of conduct for the United States’ foreign affairs.”
“The heavy interest in the President’s primacy in foreign affairs outweigh the interests on the Plaintiffs’ side of the scale. Although the Defendants recognize the financial and emotional hardships to Abrego Garcia’s family, the public interest in not returning a member of a violent criminal gang to the United States outweighs those individual interests,” the filing continues.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin criticized the deportation.
“The Trump Administration admitted that it had made a mistake, he was not actually a ‘gangbanger,’ he was not a criminal, it was all a mistake. If there’d been due process, maybe that would have been determined, but there wasn’t… The administration says there’s nothing they can to about it now, because he’s no longer in US custody. This guy who lives in my state, married to a US citizen with citizen children, he’s stuck with the dictator of El Salvador.”
The Justice Department filing and its admission were first reported by the Atlantic magazine.