THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION released documents yesterday that revealed new details in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man deported to El Salvador a month ago in what a government lawyer called an “administrative error.” 

The documents were released after weeks of pressure on the government to prove its contention that Abrego Garcia was a member of the LA-based MS-13 gang.

The Trump administration sent him to a notorious megaprison in the Central American country as part of its promised deportation programme of alleged criminals.

The Justice Department shared records, not previously made public, detailing how police officers in Maryland assessed Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang during an arrest in 2019.

Garvia has never been convicted of any crime, and had been granted a protected status that should have barred his deportation to El Salvador.

Since his wrongful deportation last month, Trump officials have claimed that Garcia is an illegal migrant, a gang member and he was involved in human trafficking.

A federal judge, backed by the US Supreme Court, has ordered Garcia’s return, but the Trump administration contends he is now solely in Salvadoran custody.

Nayib Bukele, who has proudly adopted the moniker of “world’s coolest dictator,” has said he does not have the power to send the man back.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said he had also been refused a visit or phone call with Garcia, who remains imprisoned in his native country.

The White House condemned Van Hollen’s trip to the Central American country and invited the mother of a woman killed by another migrant from El Salvador – but in an unrelated case – to speak as a “special guest” at a hastily arranged news briefing.

Van Hollen said he had asked Vice President Felix Ulloa why Garcia was still locked up in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) if he had committed no crime, and El Salvador had no evidence that he was a member of street gang MS-13.

“His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at CECOT,” Van Hollen, who represents Abrego Garcia’s home state of Maryland, told reporters during a visit to the Central American nation.

The Trump administration has paid President Nayib Bukele’s administration several million dollars to keep deportees in detention.

“I’m asking President Bukele… to do the right thing and allow Mr Abrego Garcia to walk out of prison, a man who’s charged with no crime, convicted of no crime, and who was illegally abducted from the United States,” Van Hollen said.

A legal US resident, Garcia was protected by a 2019 court order determining that he could not be deported to El Salvador, but he was sent there around a month ago.

The Trump administration has admitted an “administrative error” and has been ordered by the Supreme Court to “facilitate” the 29-year-old father’s return.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen spoke to press in La Libertad, El Salvador. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

But the White House – pressed on what action it was taking to remedy its error in lower court hearings – has not announced any efforts toward Garcia’s return.

Bukele said during a White House visit on Monday he did not have the power to return Garcia to the United States.

‘Protecting our children’

The Trump administration has mounted an increasingly aggressive pushback, accusing Garcia of gang links and domestic violence without providing any conclusive evidence.

Adrressing reporters yesterday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brought out Patty Morin of Maryland – whose daughter Rachel was beaten, raped and strangled in an unrelated 2023 case in which the Salvadoran murderer had been deported three times – to speak at a briefing.

“This is about protecting our children. It’s more than just politics or votes or just anything,” Morin told journalists.

Leavitt slammed the “appalling and sad” visit by the Democratic senator and accused him and the media of prioritizing Abrego Garcia’s case over that of Rachel Morin’s.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi meanwhile released what she called “additional information” including a police report that said his Chicago Bulls baseball cap indicated he was an MS-13 member.

He denies gang membership and has never been charged with crimes in either country.

But Trump’s critics have warned that his defiance of the courts has placed the country on the cusp of a constitutional crisis.

“It’s a short road from there to tyranny,” Van Hollen said earlier.

The issue has become a growing policial football.

West Virginia Republican congressman Riley Moore posted on X this week that he had also traveled to El Salvador to see the prison where immigrants deported by the Trump administration are being held.

He declared himself supportive of Trump’s actions, however.

Another Democratic senator, Cory Booker, and two Democratic members of the House of Representatives are also mulling a trip to the country.

Additional reporting from Andrew Walsh.

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