The Trump administration admitted that it had deported a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly sent him to an El Salvador mega prison. However, the administration said U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return.
“Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador,” a top ICE official wrote in a statement to a federal judge.
Politico reports:
He was arrested by ICE on March 12 and sent to El Salvador on March 15, where his wife recognized him in a video showing the shackled and shaven prisoners being arrayed by Salvadoran authorities.
The Trump administration now says there’s nothing it can do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to U.S. custody. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to reject a petition by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to seek his return to United States custody, saying the Trump administration has no power to force El Salvador to facilitate that demand — and that the courts have no authority to issue such an order.
