WASHINGTON: The Trump administration erroneously deported a man it alleges is a gang member in Maryland back to El Salvador as part of its March 15 deportation flights despite a judge’s ruling prohibiting his removal, according to a court filing on Monday.
Lawyers for the man, Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, in a separate filing said he is not a member of the MS-13 gang and demanded his immediate return to the United States.
In Monday’s filing, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Abrego-Garcia was on a third flight deporting people under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act “in error” despite a 2019 judgment granting him protection.
“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 filing said.
The Trump administration invoked the 18th-century law to deport Venezuelans and Salvadoreans it alleges are violent gang members as part of its sweeping immigration crackdown.
Representatives for some deportees have denied any gang ties, and the courts have temporarily blocked use of the law amid legal challenges. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, in a March 28 filing, called on the US District Court in Maryland to order his return to the United States and halt US funding of his detention at the mega-prison in El Salvador, which they called a “notorious torture chamber.”
“Where the government casts aside laws and the orders of courts, including administrative courts, state power consists solely of the capacity to commit violence,” they wrote, noting that the US government could have taken other steps to challenge the 2019 ruling.
ICE said it was aware of the earlier court order blocking Abrego Garcia’s removal, and that he was arrested on March 12 over his alleged MS-13 role and transferred to the staging area for the deportation flights.
He was not on the March 15 flight’s initial manifest, but was assigned to the flight as “an alternate” as other people were removed from the flight for various reasons, it added.
Trump administration says man deported to El Salvador ‘in error’
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Trump administration says man deported to El Salvador ‘in error’
- Lawyers for the man, Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, in a separate filing said he is not a member of the MS-13 gang and demanded his immediate return to the United States
- “Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador,” the filing said
Bangladesh begins exhuming mass grave from 2024 uprising
- The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police began exhuming on Sunday a mass grave believed to contain around 114 unidentified victims of a mass uprising that toppled autocratic former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
The UN-supported effort is being advised by Argentine forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, who has led recovery and identification missions at mass graves worldwide for decades.
The bodies were buried at the Rayerbazar Graveyard in Dhaka by the volunteer group Anjuman Mufidul Islam, which said it handled 80 unclaimed bodies in July and another 34 in August 2024 — all people reported to have been killed during weeks of deadly protests.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah said investigators believed the mass grave held roughly 114 bodies, but the exact number would only be known once exhumations were complete.
“We can only confirm once we dig the graves and exhume the bodies,” Ullah told reporters.
- ‘Searched for him’ -
Among those hoping for answers is Mohammed Nabil, who is searching for the remains of his brother Sohel Rana, 28, who vanished in July 2024.
“We searched for him everywhere,” Nabil told AFP.
He said his family first suspected Rana’s death after seeing a Facebook video, then recognized his clothing — a blue T-shirt and black trousers — in a photograph taken by burial volunteers.
Exhumed bodies will be given post-mortem examinations and DNA testing. The process is expected to take several weeks to complete.
“It’s been more than a year, so it won’t be possible to extract DNA from the soft tissues,” senior police officer Abu Taleb told AFP. “Working with bones would be more time-consuming.”
Forensic experts from four Dhaka medical colleges are part of the team, with Fondebrider brought in to offer support as part of an agreement with the UN rights body the OHCHR.
“The process is complex and unique,” Fondebrider told reporters. “We will guarantee that international standards will be followed.”
Fondebrider previously headed the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, founded in 1984 to investigate the tens of thousands who disappeared during Argentina’s former military dictatorship.
Authorities say the exhumed bodies will be reburied in accordance with religious rites and their families’ wishes.
Hasina, convicted in absentia last month and sentenced to death, remains in self-imposed exile in India.
