Vice President JD Vance defended the Trump administration on Monday after a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official informed a federal judge that a Salvadoran man unlawfully living in Maryland was mistakenly deported back to his home country.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who an immigration judge deemed likely to be an MS-13 gang member in 2019, was arrested by ICE and sent to El Salvador last month on one of the Trump administration’s deportation flights. While a judge ordered that the Salvadoran be removed from the country in 2019, the order prohibited Abrego Garcia from being sent back to his home country, acknowledging that he would likely face persecution or torture. An “administrative error” placed the suspected MS-13 member on a flight to El Salvador, where the Trump administration has been sending deportees to an infamous Salvadoran prison.
“Through…
