They Deported Him to the Wrong Country. Then Tried to Keep Him There.

← all posts

On March 15, 2025, Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran man who had lived and worked in Maryland for years, married to a U.S. citizen, with a young child — was put on a deportation flight to El Salvador. There was a court order from 2019 explicitly barring his deportation to El Salvador, because an immigration judge had found it was likely he would face persecution there. ICE put him on the plane anyway. The Department of Justice later admitted in court that it was, quote, an "administrative error."

Then the Trump administration spent months fighting in federal court — all the way to the Supreme Court — to keep him there.

The "Evidence" Was a Hat and a Tip From a Snitch.

What was the basis for labeling Abrego Garcia an MS-13 gang member? According to court documents, the government's evidence consisted primarily of his wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated tip from an unnamed informant. That's it. An immigration judge had denied his bond based on that tip — but that bond hearing was not a determination that he was actually a gang member. A bond hearing is an informal assessment of risk. There was no trial. No conviction. No criminal charges at all. He was deported to a maximum-security mega-prison on the word of an unnamed informant and a Bulls hat.

The Prison He Was Sent To.

CECOT — Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo — is El Salvador's flagship mega-prison under President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally. It houses tens of thousands of people, many detained without trial. Human rights organizations have documented systematic abuse: no sunlight, no family contact, no access to legal counsel, inhumane conditions. ICE sent Abrego Garcia there alongside hundreds of Venezuelan men deported under the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th-century wartime law Trump invoked to bypass deportation hearings entirely. Some of those men were identified as gang members based solely on their tattoos. One man's crown tattoos were a tribute to a pageant from his hometown in Venezuela. Another's "autism awareness" tattoo was in honor of his younger brother. A musician's tattoos referenced his mother and homeland. All sent to CECOT without due process.

The Supreme Court Told Them to Bring Him Back. They Complied Vindictively.

Federal Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. The government appealed. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the district court had properly required the government to "facilitate" his release from Salvadoran custody. The government eventually brought him back — not to Maryland, where he had lived, but to Tennessee, where they immediately charged him with human smuggling. The indictment was secured the same day a supervising prosecutor in the criminal division resigned. A federal judge later found that the prosecution "may be vindictive" and noted that the Deputy Attorney General's own statements suggested the charges were filed because Abrego Garcia won his wrongful-deportation case.

As of March 2026, the Trump administration is now trying to deport him to Liberia. He has agreed to go to Costa Rica, which will accept him as a refugee. The administration refuses. Costa Rica willing. Abrego Garcia willing. The administration would rather send him to West Africa than admit they were wrong.

This Is Not One Case. This Is the System.

Abrego Garcia's lawyer now has a dozen similar wrongful deportation cases. People deported to countries they were legally protected from being sent to. The American Immigration Council reports that ICE detention increased by nearly 75% in 2025, climbing from roughly 40,000 people to 66,000 by December — the highest level ever recorded. Arrests of people with no criminal record surged by 2,450%. People are being arrested at routine ICE check-ins — meaning showing up to follow the law got you detained. 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE detention on record. In January 2026 alone, ICE arrested 39,694 people. The agency's own locator system became so overwhelmed that detainees were "disappearing" for days.

And Congress gave them $45 billion more to expand it.