Kilmar Abrego Garcia Wrongfully Deported to El Salvador Despite Court-Ordered Protection

On March 15, 2025, Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran man living legally in Maryland with his American citizen wife and children — was wrongfully deported to El Salvador on one of three deportation flights, despite having a 2019 court order granting him withholding of removal due to well-founded fear of persecution by the Barrio 18 gang. The Trump administration initially called it “an administrative error,” claiming his protected status had not appeared on the flight manifest and that he was listed as an “alternate” who took another detainee’s place.

Abrego Garcia had been complying with annual ICE check-ins and was living in Prince George’s County, Maryland, raising three children including a five-year-old with special needs. He was sent to CECOT, El Salvador’s maximum security mega-prison, where his lawyers later reported he was subjected to severe beatings, sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.

The case became the defining constitutional crisis of 2025 — a test of whether the executive branch could deport a person with legal protection and then refuse to bring them back, effectively nullifying judicial authority over deportation. The government’s refusal to comply with court orders to facilitate his return triggered a direct confrontation between the judicial and executive branches that escalated to the Supreme Court within weeks.