Despite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official acknowledging there was an “administrative error” in sending a Maryland man to El Salvador — the Trump administration is “shockingly” not seeking his return to the U.S., according to a new filing by the man’s lawyer.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who has a U.S. citizen wife and 5-year-old child, is currently at CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador despite a judge issuing an order in 2019 that barred authorities from deporting him to his home country.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the attorney representing Abrego Garcia said in a filing on Wednesday that if the Trump administration’s actions are allowed to remain without “redress,” then “the orders of immigration courts are meaningless.”
“This is an outrageous set of facts,” said Sandoval-Moshenberg in the filing. “If Defendants’ actions in this case are allowed to remain without redress, then the withholding of removal statute and orders of immigration courts are meaningless, because the government can deport whomever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it’s done.”
Earlier this week, Sandoval-Moshenberg filed a lawsuit, requesting that the government of El Salvador return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. after being sent there “because of an administrative error.”
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the administrative error and called Abrego Garcia a leader of MS-13.
“The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,” Leavitt said.
According to court records, in 2019, a confidential informant “had advised that Abrego Garcia was an active member” of the gang MS-13. He later filed an I-589 application for asylum and although Abrego Garcia was found removable, an immigration judge “granted him withholding of removal to El Salvador.
“Defendants’ protestation that Plaintiff is an MS-13 member, their legal argument that he is estopped for arguing otherwise, and Plaintiff’s contention that the gang allegations arise from the flimsiest of unreliable anonymous informants, will be properly addressed to an immigration court,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said in Wednesday’s filing.
Sandoval-Moshenberg has said that his client “is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang” and said that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”
In response, the government acknowledged the error but said in a filing that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor can the court order El Salvador to return him.
The new filing by Sandoval-Moshenberg in support of his motion for a preliminary injunction comes days before a judge is scheduled to hear arguments on the case in Maryland.
“Noncitizens — and their U.S.-citizen spouses and children — must know that if this nation awards them protection from persecution, it will honor that commitment even when the political winds shift,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
The attorney said that the deportation of Abrego Garcia was carried out “by force” and not the law.
Last month, Abrego Garcia was stopped by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed.”
After being detained over alleged gang affiliations, he was transferred to a detention center in Texas. He was then sent to El Salvador on March 15.
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