An administrative error
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I just feel sick.
The Trump administration is getting blowback for confirmed and potential errors in its rush to deport hundreds of men to El Salvador last month.
On Monday night, immigration officials admitted to deporting a Maryland man to El Salvador due to an "administrative error."
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who lived with his U.S. citizen wife and child, was identified as being on one of the three deportation flights to El Salvador last month that are the subject of several lawsuits. Immigration advocates claim those flown to El Salvador did not receive due process.
The administration used the three flights to quickly deport over three hundred men it accused of being members of MS-13, a gang with connections to El Salvador that originated in Los Angeles, and Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. They were later moved to CECOT, a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
One of them was Abrego Garcia, who his wife identified through photos released by the El Salvadoran government.
"The government's filing was pretty shocking because they admitted everything that we alleged," Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the lawyer representing Abrego Garcia and his family, told NPR.
Although Justice Department lawyers acknowledge the mistake in Abrego Garcia's case, they say there is nothing federal officials can do because he is now in custody of another country.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347427/maryland-el-salvador-error
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If you're a Venezuelan migrant and you have a tattoo, you get deported to El Salvador.
But if you're a nominee for SecDef and you have a tattoo, you get confirmed and get the job.
‘He is not a gang member’: outrage as US deports makeup artist to El Salvador prison for crown tattoos
Andry José Hernández Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim ‘crown’ tattoos proved he was a gang memberFor as long as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.
At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town’s youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots.
“Most Capacheros get crown tattoos, often adding the name of their father or mother. We’ve lots of people with these tattoos – it’s a tradition that began in 1917,” said Miguel Chacón, the president of Capacho’s Three Kings Day foundation.
The Latin American tradition appears to have been lost on the US immigration officers who detained Hernández, a 31-year-old makeup artist, hairdresser and theatre lover, after he crossed the southern border last August to attend a prearranged asylum appointment in San Diego.
Hernández, who is gay, told agents he was fleeing persecution stemming from his sexual orientation and political views. Just weeks earlier, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, had unleashed a ferocious crackdown after being accused of stealing the presidential election to extend his 12-year rule.
But Hernández’s tattoos were deemed proof he was a member of Venezuela’s most notorious gang, the Tren de Aragua, and a “security threat” to the US.
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I cannot believe it’s come to this.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.
In a post on the social media platform X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year.
“The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.””
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Trump Administration Knew Vast Majority of Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Had Not Been Convicted of U.S. Crimes
Homeland Security records reveal that officials knew that more than half of the 238 deportees were labeled as having no criminal record in the U.S. and had only violated immigration laws.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-el-salvador-deportees-criminal-convictions-cecot-venezuela
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He's back in the US and facing criminal charges for trafficking, something they were apparently unaware of (ahem) before now, as when they were throwing a lot of accusations at him a few weeks ago and this one wasn't one of them.
And a federal prosecutor resigned a few days before the indictment was handed down.
Wonder if Garcia will get a fair trial.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-questions-rcna211601
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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From what I read, the charge has inconsistencies--like he lied to the police officer about coming from Texas as opposed to he told the officer he started in Texas and went to Ohio on his way to Maryland. I think most of the competent government lawyers have been fired or have quit.
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He's back in the US and facing criminal charges for trafficking, something they were apparently unaware of (ahem) before now, as when they were throwing a lot of accusations at him a few weeks ago and this one wasn't one of them.
And a federal prosecutor resigned a few days before the indictment was handed down.
Wonder if Garcia will get a fair trial.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-questions-rcna211601
said in An administrative error:
Wonder if Garcia will get a fair trial.
He's pleading not guilty to human trafficking.
Much of the government's testimony in support of pre-trial detention came from Homeland Security special agent Pete Joseph, who testified about his investigation into the 2022 traffic stop where Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told police they had been working construction in Missouri.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol officers ultimately issued no speeding ticket and allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with just a warning about an expired driver's license.
As ABC News previously reported, the criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April as federal authorities began to scrutinize the traffic stop.
Joseph testified that law enforcement officers who pulled over the vehicle asked those in the car to write down their name, date of birth and where they were traveling to -- what was described in court as a "roster" of who was traveling in the car. One person on the roster was a 15-year-old minor, according to the list provided to law enforcement -- a piece of evidence that the government alleges proves that Abrego Garcia also transported minors.
The judge grappled with how much weight to give that information, given that the Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper wasn't in court to testify specifically about the list.
"I'm not saying to you that I'm completely discounting it," said Judge Holmes, who added that she wasn't sure she was willing to accept that because the person was a minor meant that he was a minor victim.
