The phrase “an administrative error” sounds so innocent. Maybe someone forgot to send an email or filled out the wrong part of a form? Probably no big deal, and definitely an error that can be easily corrected, right?
Well, think again, as the Trump administration has been forced to make the horrible admission that ICE agents arrested innocent Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had every legal right to be in the country, flew him to El Salvador, and tossed him into the notoriously brutal “Terrorism Confinement Center”.
In court filings issued yesterday, government attorneys admitted in a filing that: “Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.”
NEW: In a court filing this evening, the Trump administration said that it had mistakenly deported a Maryland father to a notorious Salvadoran prison due to an "administrative error." pic.twitter.com/e5cOcR1W0W
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) April 1, 2025
Whoops! Sounds like a pretty serious error! Okay, let’s get him back right away! Uh, what’s that? “The court has no ability to bring him back now that Abrego Garcia is in Salvadoran custody”. Oh. Well, that’s not good.
It’s difficult to see how this colossal and cruel error took place. The court filing underlines that ICE agents were aware that Garcia was in the country legally, with the Trump attorneys saying: “ICE was aware of this grant of withholding of removal at the time [of] Abrego Garcia’s removal from the United States. Reference was made to this status on internal forms.” They confirm that Garcia was only on the deportation manifest as “an alternate”, but that he was moved up the list when other detainees were removed from the flight and eventually deported. This was, they confess, “an oversight”
At this point, you can bet that MAGA cheerleaders will be casually saying that Garcia was definitely a psychopathic gang member after all, and the country is better off without him. JD Vance has even outright lied and said he is “a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here”. He’s not, and he did:
The court document you apparently are incapable of reading states explicitly that he is not convicted of anything in either country.
— Phil George (@itsphilgeorge) April 1, 2025
There is no accusation that this man has harmed any citizens. US or otherwise. pic.twitter.com/m84xiPJEVh
Him being on ICE’s list appears to stem from a false allegation and a misunderstanding based on his tattoos. In any event, he successfully disproved gang affiliation allegations in court, and a judge approved him being given “protected status”.
Rather than being a vicious drug dealer, Garcia is married to a U.S. citizen, has no criminal record in the United States, is a full-time union sheet-metal apprentice who has complied with all legal immigration requirements, has explicit permission to be in the country, and cares for his severely autistic five-year-old son.
Despite admitting they’re in the wrong, government lawyers are arguing that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs” shouldn’t be threatened by the miserable fate of one innocent man. So they’re going to do… nothing.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Garcia’s lawyer, is stunned, saying this case tramples the concept of “protected legal status” and that “The immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it’s done.”
Garcia’s life is now hell, though it seems that this is a price the Trump administration is willing to pay to ensure they can simply toss away whoever they don’t like without following due legal process. Make no mistake, he won’t be the last person facing this sorry fate. Who knows, maybe next time there’ll be an “administrative error” that causes your door to be broken down and you to be dragged away in cuffs in front of your kids?
Published: Apr 1, 2025 07:58 am