Attorneys for the Trump administration have argued that a judge doesn’t have the authority to order the return of a man who was wrongly deported to the notorious El Salvador prison following a government error.
The administration admitted to an error
In a March 31 filing, the Trump administration admitted to having wrongly deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was granted protected status in the US.
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The filing read: “On March 15, although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.”
The father had protected status
The Maryland father, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, had been granted protected status by an immigration judge in 2019.
This means he should’ve been protected from possible deportation and the protection should have prohibited the federal government from removing him from the US.
The prison he was sent to is the ‘world’s worst’
The prison that the Trump administration sent Abrego Gracia due to an ‘error’ in El Salvador is the Center for Terrorism Confinement.
The prison also known as the CECOT is known for being the ‘world’s worst prison’, and is the country’s notorious mega-prison. It’s considered the largest prison in the Americas and can take up to 40,000 inmates.
A judge ordered Abrego Gracia’s return
Following the ‘error’ that resulted in deporting Abrego Gracia to the notorious prison, District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government on Friday April 4 to ‘facilitate and effectuate’ the man’s return to the US, as reported by CNN.
However, the Trump administration’s attorney’s didn’t like this order.
They asked for the halting of the order
The government attorneys asked the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals to halt District Judge Paula Xinis’s order to return Abrego Gracia following the admitted mishap.
The attorneys wrote, “A judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable.”
The attorney who admitted to the mistake was removed
With the government attorneys claiming that the judge has no right to order the return of Abrego Gracia, Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni was placed on leave by the Justice Department after stating that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported.
The Trump Administration didn’t like the attorney’s move
In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorney spoke about the incident
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, has claimed that the government isn’t taking action to return the father after wrongly deporting him to the horrifying prison.
He told the judge, “Plenty of tweets. Plenty of White House press conferences. But no actual steps taken with the government of El Salvador to make it right.”
