Oops! All Fascism: ICE Unlawfully Detains And Deports Legal Resident

In a stunning erosion of civil liberties, the Trump administration deported a legally protected Maryland resident — Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia — to one of the world’s most repressive prison regimes, all because of what ICE sheepishly calls an “administrative error.”

Despite a court ruling in 2019 explicitly forbidding his removal due to credible fears of persecution, ICE detained and deported Abrego-Garcia to El Salvador in March 2025. The U.S. government had already lost the argument in court, but deported him anyway. Now he’s locked inside El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison—an internationally condemned dystopia where thousands are held without trial.

This wasn’t a loophole—it was a legal judgment. The court determined that Abrego-Garcia’s life would be at risk in El Salvador. That protection was supposed to keep him safe. On March 12, 2025, ICE agents arrested Abrego-Garcia in Baltimore, Maryland. According to reports, officers informed him that his immigration status had changed—despite a standing 2019 court order granting him protection from removal. Within days, he was transferred to a detention center in Texas and deported to El Salvador on March 15. Upon arrival, he was taken into custody at the country’s CECOT mega-prison, where he remains detained.

This isn't just a bureaucratic mistake. It’s a full-blown institutional humiliation.

The administration’s excuse? Oops. They say the courts can’t order him returned because he's no longer in U.S. custody. How convenient.

Worse, officials are defending the deportation by dredging up the same debunked gang allegation the court already tossed out. This man was granted legal refuge by the U.S. judicial system. Trump’s ICE threw that in the shredder.

In 2019, ICE accused Abrego-Garcia of being affiliated with MS-13 based on a claim from a confidential informant. He denied it—and the immigration judge agreed. After reviewing the evidence, the court found the allegation too flimsy to justify removal. Instead, the judge granted him legal protection under “withholding of removal,” a status reserved for people facing serious danger if deported.

His family is still in Maryland—his wife a U.S. citizen, his child an American-born five-year-old. They're now watching helplessly as a man who followed every legal step gets thrown to a foreign prison by the country that promised him safety.

This isn’t just about one man. It’s a warning: under Trump’s immigration regime, not even legal status protects you from becoming a disposable pawn in a culture war.