Man Deported in Error by US Is Secure in El Salvador Prison: Official

A State Department official said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is ‘detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.’

Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a file photograph. Abrego Garcia Family/Handout via Reuters

The man the United States government has acknowledged erroneously deporting, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is alive in a prison in El Salvador, a U.S. State Department official said in a new court filing.

“It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador,” Michael Kozak, the official, said in a sworn declaration to a federal judge in Washington. “He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”

Kozak’s filing is the first since the federal judge overseeing Abrego Garcia’s case said on April 11 that officials must, starting on April 12 and continuing each day thereafter, provide updates on how they’re effectuating Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States.

Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, was illegally residing in the United States. The U.S. government arrested and deported him to El Salvador in March because of what authorities described as his “prominent role” in the MS-13 gang.

An immigration judge had previously determined that there was strong evidence the man was a member of MS-13, but a different judge issued a withholding of removal, preventing the deportation of Abrego Garcia to his home country over concerns that he would not be safe there.

The U.S. government said the deportation to El Salvador was caused by an administrative error.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 10 that the government must “facilitate” Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador while also making sure his case “is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

In Kozak’s two-page declaration, the senior State Department official did not provide any additional information on Garcia beyond his location, his being alive, and his being detained pursuant to the Salvadoran government’s authority.

Kozak said that he obtained the information about Abrego Garcia “from other State Department employees.”

The U.S. government did not file any additional documents with the court.

President Donald Trump had told reporters on Air Force One on April 11, “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that,” although he said he was not familiar with all the details of Abrego Garcia’s case.

On April 12, Trump wrote on social media platform Truth Social that “President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States.”

He added: “These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government. They will never threaten or menace our Citizens again!”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele landed in the United States on April 12 and is set to meet with Trump on April 14.

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, the judge overseeing his case, on April 12 that she should order the government to take “all available steps to release and return Abrego Garcia to Maryland,” where he was residing when he was arrested.