Trump ICE official admits "administrative error" in deporting man to El Salvador prison

The Trump administration admitted in a court filing Monday that an "administrative error" and an "oversight" resulted in a Salvadoran man's deportation and imprisonment in a supermax prison in El Salvador, despite a legal order prohibiting his removal there.

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director Robert Cerna said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was removed from the U.S. on March 15 as part of a series of deportation flights that sent hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, even though an immigration judge had granted him a legal protection from deportation.

Those flights are at the center of a court battle between the Justice Department and U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who blocked further deportations of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Trump administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.