ICE admits it deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father of three, in error as the White House levelled new accusations against him. News4’s Paul Wagner reports.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says sending a Maryland man with protected status to prison in El Salvador almost three weeks ago was an "administrative error." The White House levelled new accusations against him.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held in a notorious prison, Trump administration officials said for the first time Tuesday. NBC Washington reported on March 18 that his wife and lawyer argued he was wrongfully detained and then disappeared.
In court documents, Robert Cerna, an acting ICE field office director, called Abrego Garcia's removal "an oversight" that was "carried out in good faith" based on his alleged involvement in the gang MS-13.
Abrego Garcia was deported from Maryland under the Alien Enemies Act — a 1798 law invoked by President Donald Trump — according to his wife. She told NBC Washington he is not part of any criminal organization.
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Abrego Garcia was on one of three U.S. Department of Justice deportation flights to El Salvador on March 15, according to court documents. Cerna wrote he was not part of the original list to be on the flight. Abrego Garcia was an "alternate" and was put on the plane after others were removed for various reasons.
When asked about the error, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said ICE made a clerical error. She levelled new accusations.
“It was an administrative error. 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. That is fact number one. Fact number two: We also have credible evidence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking.”
Leavitt provided no evidence to back up the human trafficking claim.
In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Greenbelt, a complaint says the government has never come up with an “iota” of evidence that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.
A sudden arrest and deportation
ICE detained Abrego Garcia, 29, on March 12 near IKEA in College Park. His wife, Jennifer, told NBC Washington he had just left the house with their young son and was heading to a bus stop to pick up their two other kids.
“When they put him in the vehicle, they still took me to the vehicle and opened the door and told me to say goodbye to him,” Jennifer said.
“He just told me to take care of my kids, and I told him everything is going to be fine,” she said, fighting tears. “You’re going to come back, because you haven’t done nothing. You have your work permit.”
Jennifer snapped photos of her husband sitting on a curb with his hands behind his back, wearing a neon work shirt. He was a sheet metal worker and began an apprenticeship program.
Abrego Garcia was transferred to Baltimore, then Louisiana, then Texas, then Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, court documents say.
Abrego Garcia’s wife had no idea where her husband had been taken. She tried tracking his location through ICE's online detainee locator tool.
Finally, she recognized him in a video El Salvador’s president posted to X, showing men in white uniforms being frog-marched and having their heads shaved. In a photo, of detainees, she recognized his tattoos.
NBC Washington repeatedly asked ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department what happened to Abrego Garcia. The government provided no information until Tuesday that they had deported him.
After the deportation flights, the White House press secretary was asked at a press briefing how Trump administration officials determined everyone they detained and deported had a criminal record.
“I can ensure the American people that Customs and Border Patrol and ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are sure about the identities of the individuals who were on these planes and the threat that they posed to our homeland,” Leavitt said.
NBC Washington found no local criminal record for Abrego Garcia – not even a traffic ticket.
Abrego Garcia's status and what's next
Abrego Garcia was given the status of withholding of removal in 2019, according to attorney Lucia Curiel. A document she provided shows the status was granted and cites a clause that provides restriction on deportation but has exceptions in which the person can be removed, such as reasonable grounds to believe the person is a danger.
Curiel said Abrego Garcia was accused by Prince George’s County police of wearing a gang shirt in March 2019. The claim wasn’t substantiated, she said, but she believes that may be the reason he was targeted for deportation.
Abrego Garcia was suspected of being a gang member after he was seen wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie, a lawsuit says. A confidential informant advised he was an MS-13 member, according to the document.
In an ICE document, Cerna said Abrego Garcia was arrested because of his “prominent role in MS-13.” Cerna said elsewhere in the document that he was removed because of his “purported membership in MS-13.”
Sen. Cory Booker spoke about Abrego Garcia while speaking on the Senate floor.
"We were told that the president said that he was going to be focusing on criminals," Booker said. "Cruelty: This is not who we are."
Abrego Garcia's attorneys requested that the Salvadoran government return him to the U.S. The Trump administration said U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return.
Maryland Judge Paula Xinis scheduled a hearing Friday in Greenbelt to address his case.
For now, all Jennifer and her three young children can do is wait.
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