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By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
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The Trump administration has acknowledged that a person was deported from the United States on the back of erroneous information.
Why It Matters
It comes after Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Maryland resident, was deported to El Salvador last month despite a court order blocking his removal. Arrested in 2019 and accused of being part of the MS-13 gang—a group the Trump administration labels a terrorist organization—Abrego Garcia denied the claim, though two judges found him to be a member based on confidential information provided to the court. He had been protected from deportation due to fears that rival gangs in El Salvador would target him. ICE officials now say his deportation was the result of an "administrative error." Abrego Garcia has no U.S. criminal record.
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Trump campaigned on a hard-line immigration stance, pledging to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. In the initial months of his presidency, his administration said it had deported around 100,000 illegal immigrants, many following his invocation of the seldom used Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which grants the president authority to deport non-citizens without them appearing before a judge.
What To Know
The Trump administration has acknowledged another error in a deportation case involving a Guatemalan man,as first reported by Politico.
In a late Friday court filing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) admitted that it wrongly said a Guatemalan man had told officials he was not afraid to be deported to Mexico—a statement central to the government's defense in an ongoing class action lawsuit. The man, identified in court papers only by the initials O.C.G., said he was persecuted in both Guatemala and Mexico before arriving in the United States.
ICE officials now say there is no record confirming that O.C.G. ever stated he was unafraid to return to Mexico. The discrepancy, they assert, was caused by flawed data entry in a software system known as the "ENFORCE alien removal module," which tracks deportation cases and allows officers to log case notes.
"Upon further investigation...ICE was unable to identify an officer or officers who asked O.C.G. if he feared a return to Mexico," wrote Brian Ortega, assistant field office director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, in a sworn statement to the federal court.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who is overseeing the class-action case, declined in April to immediately order the government to bring O.C.G. back from Mexico, in part because of the administration's claim that the man had not expressed fear of returning. Instead, Murphy ordered expedited fact-finding—a process that ultimately revealed the mistake.
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O.C.G.'s case is part of a broader legal challenge to the administration's use of so-called "third-country" deportations, a policy that allows immigrants to be sent to countries other than their own if their native governments refuse to accept them or if they fear persecution at home. Murphy has blocked such deportations without prior notice, ruling that individuals must be given a meaningful opportunity to contest their transfer and raise claims of torture or persecution.
O.C.G., who fled Guatemala in April 2024, said he faced persecution at home and endured rape and captivity in Mexico for being gay. In February, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation to Guatemala. But ICE deported him to Mexico soon after — without notice and allegedly in violation of due process.
Judge Murphy cited O.C.G.'s case in his ruling halting third-country deportations without notice. Although he expressed skepticism about the government's claim regarding O.C.G.'s supposed statement to ICE, the disputed nature of the evidence led him to hold off on ordering the man's return. It is unclear if the administration's new admission will alter that stance.
On Friday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to remove a nationwide injunction imposed by Murphy in April, barring the rapid deportation of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to nations other than their own country of origin without first hearing their concerns about safety.
Also on Friday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime statute revived by Trump to expedite deportations of those alleged to be gang members or terrorists, citing the government's failure to provide adequate due process.
What Happens Next
The case of O.C.G. will return to U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who must now decide whether the Trump administration's admission changes the legal and humanitarian calculus for ordering the man's return from Mexico
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