The Trump administration has defended its decision to deport the man at the center of the nation’s most-debated immigration case so far this year.
For more than five years, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an adjudged illegal immigrant living on borrowed time in the United States.
During that period, a deportation order applied to him, but it had been put on hold. This fact was overshadowed by the uproar surrounding his recent deportation.
The El Salvador native, who disagrees with a judge’s declaration that evidence showed he is an MS-13 gang member, was sent to prison in his home country without a hearing in early March.
That alleged violation of due process touched off a media frenzy and a legal tug-of-war that has already reached the nation’s highest court. The case is among several that could affect President Donald Trump’s pursuit of stricter immigration law enforcement.
Nearly a month after Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States.
It’s up to El Salvador to decide what to do with one of its citizens. So far, the country is refusing to relinquish custody and send him back.
For now, Abrego Garcia remains in El Salvador. He was transferred from a maximum-security facility to a lower-security prison “in a room of his own with a bed and furniture … not in a cell,” a court filing from the U.S. State Department states.
Abrego Garcia’s supporters are lobbying for his freedom. Some politicians are heading to El Salvador, following in the footsteps of Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). He flew to the country and visited face-to-face with Abrego Garcia under the Salvadoran government’s supervision in mid-April.
Trump administration officials are digging in their heels, saying they’re determined to keep Abrego Garcia out of the United States. They have downplayed or disagreed with an immigration official’s March 31 statement that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was made in error.
His status as an illegal immigrant remains unchallenged, although many other aspects of the case are in contention.
Legal rulings, court filings, and other emerging information continue to sharpen the picture of who Abrego Garcia is, why authorities are concerned about him, and whether his deportation was justified.
