Migration: accidentally deported man should go back to the USA

In the dispute over the accidental deportation of a man in a notorious prison in El Salvador, the US government has suffered a legal defeat. A federal judge in the state of Maryland ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who comes from El Salvador, had to be brought back to the USA by Monday at the latest. The Ministry of Justice immediately appealed.

The family man belongs to a group of migrants who were recently brought from the USA to the Salvadorian high-security prison Cecot-presumably contrary to an order from another judge in the US capital Washington.

Protected against deportation

According to US media, Garcia had entered the USA in 2012. Although his asylum application was rejected in 2019, the competent court at the time asked him to protect deportation – with reference to impending persecution in El Salvador. Nevertheless, he was arrested in Maryland on March 12th and deported a few days later. Judge Paula Xinis now rated this as illegal.

In this case, the government of US President Donald Trump has granted an “administrative mistake”-but states that Garcia is a member of the gang MS-13. She also explained that return was not possible because Garcia was in the detention of another state. However, according to the US media, a government attorney admitted that a withdrawal was fundamentally feasible.

Judge: “In my opinion only chatter”

According to the reports, Xinis was skeptical about the allegations against Garcia. In her opinion, there is no reliable evidence of gang membership. “Politico” quoted the judge with the words: “In my opinion, this is only chatter.” If someone is suspected of a gang membership, this must be clarified in a regular criminal proceedings. Accordingly, a government representative also admitted that Garcia should not have been deported.

In the ongoing debate about the deportations to prison, the White House refuses more information about the specific allegations against those affected. It is only generally talking about memberships in the criminal gangs Tren De Aragua from Venezuela and MS-13 from El Salvador-both were declared foreign terrorist organizations under the Trump government.

As a legal basis, the government is referring to a controversial war law from the 18th century. Legal tug of war on the question of whether this is legal is now concerned with the Supreme Court.

Profitable deal for El Salvador

The deportations were staged in public. Among other things, US Housing Protection Minister Kristi Noem visited the prison in El Salvador. Noem posed in front of bars behind which there were imprisoned people, and thanked El Salvador’s authoritarian president Nayib Bukele. According to this, Washington pays an annual fee of $ 20,000 (around 18,500 euros) to the Latin American country for every prisoner recorded.

Human rights organizations have long accused Bukele of arbitrary arrests and massive fundamental rights violations. The conditions in prison rate them as intolerable.