Trump administration deports Abrego Garcia to CECOT despite court order

On March 15, 2025, the Trump administration deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador''s CECOT maximum-security prison, despite a 2019 immigration court order granting him withholding of removal — a legal bar on deportation to El Salvador because of documented gang threats to his life. Abrego Garcia had lived in Maryland for approximately 15 years; immigration agents stopped him on March 12, told him his legal status had changed, and placed him on a flight before federal courts could intervene. The administration later acknowledged the deportation was an "administrative error."