How the Trump Administration flipped on Kilmar Abrego Garcia | U.S. officials initially sought to resolve Abrego Garcia’s case quietly and ensure his safety through the conventional diplomatic channels they’ve used in other cases involving a mistaken deportation

emphasis mine:

# The State Dept tries to handle the case normally

> These conversations show that U.S. officials initially sought to resolve Abrego Garcia’s case quietly and ensure his safety through the conventional diplomatic channels they’ve used in other cases involving a mistaken deportation. This time, though, their efforts were abruptly halted.

> Late last month, three days after Abrego Garcia’s family filed its lawsuit over his deportation, government attorneys began discussing how to undo the mistake and bring him back. In their conversations, officials went so far as to float the idea of having the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador make a personal appeal to the country’s president for Abrego Garcia’s return. But first, the State Department’s legal team wanted more information from DHS about his alleged role in the MS-13 gang. The thin evidence supplied in response was met with skepticism from the State Department lawyers. Abrego Garcia, who came to the United States illegally when he was 16 years old, was one of 23 Salvadorans deported on March 15. But his name had not appeared on an internal list of 10 gang members sought by President Nayib Bukele.

# White House officials take over from State Dept

> But as criticism of the administration over its mishandling of the case spread, White House officials took over the response and began striking a far more strident tone in their public statements. They swiftly turned an admission of bureaucratic error into a political opportunity—a chance to flex executive authority and test the judicial branch’s ability to restrain presidential power. **Abrego Garcia’s deportation became far more than just the case of one man; it developed into a measure of whether Donald Trump’s administration can send people—citizens or not—to foreign prisons without due process.** All the while, Abrego Garcia has remained in detention in El Salvador, unable to communicate with his lawyers or his family.

> White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that there was an initial effort to return Abrego Garcia. “The Administration has always maintained the position that Abrego Garcia was the man we rightfully intended to deport because he is an illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang Member,” she said in a written response to questions, adding that the administration is complying with court orders in the case.

# ICE lies to the State Dept

> Abrego Garcia’s record had traffic violations but no criminal charges or convictions. Yet ICE officials told the State Department—falsely—that he had faced criminal charges. They pointed to records showing that Abrego Garcia had been suspected of human or labor trafficking after a traffic stop in Tennessee in 2022. State police had referred the incident to federal authorities because Abrego Garcia had been driving a van with eight passengers from Texas to Maryland. Abrego Garcia had told officers that he was driving the group to a construction job and that the vehicle belonged to his boss. He was cited for driving with an expired license but not charged with human trafficking or any other crime.

> **ICE said that Abrego Garcia was a member of an MS-13 group called the Western Clique, citing a 2019 report by a gang investigator in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The investigator who filed the report was suspended soon after and charged with misconduct in an unrelated sex-worker case. The document has not been treated as credible by the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit.** The Western Clique operates in New York State; Abrego Garcia has never lived there.

# Stephen Miller (derogatory) gets involved

> As criticism of that stance spread, and federal courts sided against the administration, Vice President J. D. Vance, the Trump adviser Stephen Miller, Bondi, and other top Cabinet officials went on the attack. The White House went from calling Abrego Garcia’s deportation a “clerical error” to insisting that no mistake had been made at all.

> **Miller, in particular, was determined to use the designation of MS-13 and other criminal groups as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” to supercharge deportations and bypass standard due-process protections.** The White House’s evolving position fit the pattern of Trump’s second term, in which his administration has responded to mistakes by shrugging them off and refusing to take corrective action. Miller took charge of the White House’s messaging, castigating reporters who asked about the case. He also cheered on the administration’s escalating standoff with the judicial branch. After the Supreme Court directed U.S. officials on April 10 to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador, Miller publicly claimed the opposite: that the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the White House because the Court had acknowledged the president’s prerogative in managing foreign affairs. (Miller did not respond to a request for comment.)

!ping IMMIGRATION&LAW