USA: mistakenly arrested after El Salvador, arrested by return

The migrant Kilmar Ábrego García, which was relegated to El Salvador almost three months ago, returned to the USA on Friday. There he was immediately arrested, as US Justice Minister Pam Bondi said. Ábrego García has to answer in the United States about the accusation of human smuggling. He is accused of having smuggled migrants into the United States without valid papers.

Ábrego García was one of more than 250 migrants who were deported to El Salvador on March 15 and arrested in a notorious prison. The Salvadorian citizen is married to a US citizen and lived until his deportation in eastern Maryland.

Ábrego García’s case exemplifies a larger debate about the government’s procedure in the event of deportations. In essence, the question is whether those affected receive sufficient legal hearing before. The case of the 29-year-old family man highlighted the hard action against irregular migration and made headlines worldwide.

The US government admitted that Ábrego García had been deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error”. At the same time, Trump claimed that Ábrego García belongs to the Salvadorian gang MS-13 and was a “terrorist”-even if there is no evidence of this. In addition, he actually enjoyed legal protection in the United States: a court had already canceled an order to deport the man in 2019. The United States’ Supreme Court instructed the government in April to stand up for Ábrego García’s return to the United States.

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