The White House is doubling down on calling Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia a “foreign terrorist” despite the administration conceding in court documents that he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
“Abrego Garcia was a foreign terrorist. He is an MS-13 gang member. He was engaged in human trafficking. He illegally came into our country. And so, deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Tuesday’s press briefing without providing evidence of those charges.
The Trump administration has designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization. But Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have disputed the claim that he’s a member of the gang and at least one federal judge has voiced skepticism toward it.
“There is never going to be a world in which is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland because he is a foreign terrorist. And an MS-13 gang member. Not only have we confirmed that, President (Nayib) Bukele yesterday in the Oval Office confirmed that as well,” Leavitt added.
The White House and Bukele made clear during Monday’s White House meeting that Abrego Garcia won’t be returned to the US.
But a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official previously stated in court filings that Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador as a result of an “administrative error.”
He was granted protected status by an immigration judge in 2019 that prohibited the federal government from sending him to El Salvador and his attorneys say that he fled gang violence more than a decade ago.
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