Trump Administration Sent Man to Prison In Error, Can’t Get Him Back

The Trump administration just can’t stop ruining people’s lives. 

This time, they kidnapped a man from his family and friends and sent him to one of the worst prisons in the world, and when asked about the incident, they crafted a beautiful word salad that amounted to the political equivalent of “my bad.” 

Oh, and get this, now the administration says despite the man not being in any legal trouble and not being an “illegal immigrant,” they can’t bring him back home. 

I know. I know. 

Let me explain. 

According to CNN, the Trump administration admitted that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia should’ve never been arrested and sent to the notorious El Salvador mega-prison, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT). The literal translation of the name is “terrorist confinement center.” They claim that the Maryland father, who shares a 5-year-old disabled son with his American wife, is experiencing arguably his worst nightmare “because of an administrative error.”

And we only know about any of this because the Trump administration responded to a lawsuit filed Monday, noting that Abrego Garcia was a Salvadoran national who was granted protected status in 2019 and should’ve never been sent to El Salvador. 

CNN notes that this was the first time that the administration admitted “an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador, which are now at the center of a fraught legal battle.”

“On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the Trump administration filing states, CNN notes. 

What makes all of this even worse is that 10 years ago, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador and the gang violence for a better life, and the Trump administration sent him right back into the eye of the storm. 

From CNN:

Prior to his removal, he had been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in mid-March “due to his prominent role in MS-13,” according to a court declaration from a senior ICE official. His attorneys say he’s not a member of nor has any ties to the MS-13 gang.

“Abrego-Garcia was not on the initial manifest of the Title 8 flight to be removed to El Salvador,” Robert Cerna, an acting ICE field office director, said in his declaration, referring to federal immigration law. “Rather, he was an alternate. As others were removed from the flight for various reasons, he moved up the list and was assigned to the flight. The manifest did not indicate that Abrego-Garcia should not be removed.”

“Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13,” the declaration reads.

Abrego Garcia is now in Salvadoran custody, and the Trump administration claims that because of this, they can’t bring him back. They also dismissed concerns that he could be tortured or killed, despite sending him to a maximum security prison that houses many notorious gangs, including members of MS-13. 

According to USA Today, “Visitation, recreation and education are not allowed at the mega-prison…Each of its 256 cells houses an average of 156 inmates in metal bunks with no mattresses or sheets and only two toilets and two sinks for the entire group. Artificial lights stay bright 24 hours a day, and CCTV cameras and armed guards monitor each cell. Solitary confinement cells are kept pitch black except for a small ceiling hole for light to trickle in.”

The inhumane prison conditions have raised concerns among advocacy rights groups and critics who argue that people are being sentenced without due process. 

“I strongly, strongly fear that they’re already being tortured, being mistreated, being screamed at, being forced to perform forced labor, being poorly fed or underfed,” Adam Isacson, director of defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization, told USA Today. 

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