President Donald Trump and his administration recently deported a Maryland Father due to a clerical error. The administration has made deportation a focal point in the United States. Much has been made about the administration’s policies. Statistically, deportations are lower so far this year than they were under former President Biden.
However, arrests are up, and so is the number of people detained in ICE detention centers across the United States. The administration has been using the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba to house migrants and has worked with the country of El Salvador to jail migrants deported from the United States.
These decisions have raised the eyes of civil rights leaders, who have demanded more humane treatment of migrants. Court proceedings have been brought against the administration as a result of the policies, which in part have slowed down some of the attempts at deportation. For many humanitarian activists, though, this is not enough. They say the treatment of migrants at detention facilities and the splitting of families from their children is a crisis. Those voices are only going to get louder following the most recent legal trouble facing the Trump Administration.
Maryland Father Files Lawsuit After Wrongful Deportation
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a Salvadorian national who was granted federal protection in 2019 from being sent back to his native El Salvador. Last month, however, Arbrego Garcia was arrested and deported, back to the mega prison in El Salvador that the administration has sent other immigrants to in cooperation with the Salvadorian government. The Maryland father is now suing the Trump administration, specifically naming Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, and several other officials, for wrongful deportation.
According to the lawsuit, Abrego Garcia claims the administration knew about his protected status and chose to ignore it anyway. His status protects him from being sent back to El Salvador, though he could be deported to other countries. According to reports, he was deported in March without any legal proceedings, even though he has not been charged or officially accused of any crime in the United States or El Salvador. His reason for leaving El Salvador was to flee from gang violence. Abrego Garcia’s wife was able to identify him through photos of detainees.
Following his arrest by ICE on March 12th, Abrego Garcia was transferred through multiple facilities around the country, where he was being questioned for gang-related acts. On March 15th, he was abruptly deported, having not held a hearing on his status or any protections. The lawsuit requests that the administration return him to the United States or the U.S. Embassy and terminate payments to the Salvadorian government. Lawyers claim the action can be reversed.
President Trump Responds to Lawsuit
According to ICE officials, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s arrest and subsequent deportation were driven by his alleged ties to the MS-13 gang. In 2019, he was questioned for trafficking and gang affiliation, although he denied any wrongdoing or connection to MS-13. The arresting ICE officer identified himself as part of a Homeland Security investigation. The allegations against him are why he was sent to a terrorist confinement center and subsequently deported. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers vehemently deny this accusation, saying there is no evidence of any gang ties and that he was profiled and accused by a confidential informant.
The administration does admit, however, that Abrego Garcia was deported in error. They claim it was an administrative mistake, but that they will not be pursuing bringing him back to the United States or reversing the deportation in any way. White House spokesperson Karoline Levitt stated, “There’s a lot of evidence, and the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have that evidence, and I saw it this morning,” regarding the father’s ties to MS-13. It is the stance of the administration that Abrego Garcia is guilty of human trafficking and should be locked up, regardless of where that is. There was no hearing to back up these allegations.
Reaction From the Public
Civil rights activists and leaders have been outraged by the administration’s reaction. They claim that officials ignored a direct court order, putting a life at risk by sending him home to a country he should not be in. Furthermore, critics argue, deporting people without any due process sets a dangerous precedent for more of these errors to occur in the future. If Abrego Garcia was indeed a member of a dangerous gang, then officials should be able to prove it in open court.
His family is heartbroken. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, says she is scared for his safety and insists that he is not a criminal. The two met in 2016, 5 years after Abrego Garcia arrived in the United States. He worked construction to support his wife and their 3 children, who are now left without his support.
In the coming days, more information may be revealed through court hearings and mounting public pressure on the administration to explain and back up their claims, and to put protections in place so this situation does not happen again.
