U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration erroneously deported a Salvadoran man as part of three high-profile deportation flights to El Salvador last month, after a judge’s ruling prohibited the man’s removal to his home country, according to a court filing on Monday.
Lawyers for the man, Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, disputed U.S. government allegations that he was a member of the MS-13 gang and demanded his immediate return to the U.S. The government, however, said it did not have the legal authority to bring him back from El Salvador.
The White House is still asserting that the man was a member of the MS-13 gang and alleged he’d been involved in human trafficking.
“The administration maintains the position that this individual, who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Tuesday briefing.
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