White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claimed the Trump administration’s hands are tied and it cannot “forcibly retrieve” the Maryland father who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador because of an “administrative error.”
“The view of our administration has been very clear and consistent that this man is a subject and citizen of El Salvador,” Miller said during a press conference Friday. “The U.S. government cannot forcibly retrieve him against the wishes of El Salvador.”
Born in El Salvador, sheet metal worker Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported on March 15 in a flub that Trump officials admitted was an “administrative error.” He has since been held at El Salvador’s megaprison amid growing calls from legal advocates and the Supreme Court for the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
Yet Miller alleged that the “irony” in Abrego Garcia’s case is that he would most likely be deported again to El Salvador by immigration authorities under an outstanding immigration removal order against him. He claimed that a 2019 “withholding of removal” order protecting Abrego Garcia from deportation was “no longer valid.”
“Because he’s a member of a foreign terrorist organization,” Miller claimed. “And because the fake claim that he completely fabricated about being persecuted by a rival gang no longer exists. The gang itself no longer exists in the country.”
The Trump administration has continued to insist that the 29-year-old father-of-one is a member of the notorious MS-13 street gang, which it recently designated as a terrorist group.
Abrego Garcia has never been charged with a crime and has been asked to speak during previous legal proceedings about his experience resisting gang recruitment in his native El Salvador, which he says motivated his initial decision to emigrate to the United States.
The Trump administration nevertheless continues to contest the technical provisions of a recent Supreme Court ruling that demanded the U.S. government “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the country.
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