The Trump administration said a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported and then brought back to the US on criminal charges will “never go free” on American soil, even though a judge ordered his release.
Kilmar Ábrego García was deported in March as part of an immigration crackdown. Government officials said he was removed in error, but they were unable to bring him back.
Earlier this month, he was sent to the state of Tennessee, where the justice department charged him with human smuggling.
The judge overseeing the case said on Sunday that Mr Ábrego García should be released from custody while he awaits trial. But she noted immigration officials would still have the power to detain him.
I think the idea is that if he’s acquitted, they’ll just deport him somewhere other than El Salvador, which they can legally do.
He missed his window to apply for asylum years ago, so the non-removal order protecting him applied specifically to deportation to El Salvador. He can be sent elsewhere, and with Trump trying to open concentration camps elsewhere, I think he’ll eventually end up in a different torture prison.
I hate this reality.
Does him being kidnapped to a gulag on mistaken identity not make him eligible for the visas you can get if a crime is committed against you?