Admin Deported Salvadoran to Torture Prison
NEWS & RESEARCH
In March 2025, Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran immigrant with no criminal record, was detained by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and sent to CECOT, a mega-prison in El Salvador, where he was brutally tortured. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Ábrego had been wrongfully deported, as an immigration judge had previously determined that he could not be forcibly removed to El Salvador, where his family had faced death threats. The Court ordered his return, but the Trump administration refused to comply for months. When Ábrego was finally brought back, he was suddenly charged with human smuggling, based on a 2022 traffic stop in which he was found speeding with several Hispanic men in the car. A federal judge dismissed the case, saying it was "tainted" with a "vindictive motive,” and that "absent Abrego's successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution." In a related case, the government initiated removal proceedings against Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and graduate student at Columbia University, largely due to his pro-Palestinian activism. The government used an obscure immigration law that makes someone eligible for deportation if the Secretary of State says that their presence in the U.S. could negatively affect U.S. foreign policy. While a federal district court initially blocked Khalil’s removal, the Third Circuit reversed. Khalil planning to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
SOURCES: ABC News | Associated Press | BBC | NBC News | New York Times | PBS News | Washington Post | The Guardian
ANALYSIS & OPINION
According to U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, Ábrego's story "reflects a corruption of the legal process from start to finish." Ábrego was sent to El Salvador without the right to a fair trial, and the federal judge overseeing his case warned that the government was "stash[ing] away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order." The Boston Bar Association furthercautioned that the administration's refusal to return him amounted to "outright defiance of judicial authority." When the government finally did bring Ábrego back, it simultaneously launched a smear campaign—Vice President JD Vance called him a "rapist," and Trump posted a digitally altered photo superimposing gang tattoos on his knuckles—while filing human smuggling charges a federal judge would later throw out, invoking Justice Robert H. Jackson's warning about "the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted." As the ACLU put it, the administration's conduct made it clear that it can "weaponize the law to punish people standing up for their rights."
SOURCES: New York Times | New Yorker | Politico | Lawfare | Just Security | Steve Vladeck
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
Pass the Inspector General Access Act. The DOJ Inspector General currently does not have any authority to investigate misconduct by DOJ lawyers. This legislation would strike that loophole so that people like Blanche face internal accountability.
Pass the ICE and CBP Constitutional Accountability Act. This would allow individuals to sue ICE and Customs & Border Patrol when their rights are violated, including when they are denied due process.
Pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which would require the White House and DOJ to keep an ongoing record of their communications in order to maintain transparency and accountability and “prevent the executive from eroding DOJ’s independence through political interference.”
Pass the Prohibition on Funding to CECOT Act. While it wouldn’t directly address the corruption at the root of this case, it would bar U.S. federal funds from going to the Salvadoran mega-prison where Ábrego was tortured.
Pass the Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2026, to improve judicial independence by moving immigration courts out of the Department of Justice and creating an independent Article I immigration court system.
Pass the Temporary Immigration Judge Integrity Act, which would prevent the appointment of temporary immigration judges with little experience or politically convenient ties.
State action:
The Campaign for Accountability has called on the New York bar to hold Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accountable for his actions in leading the retaliatory prosecution against Ábrego. The organization accused Blanche of “breach[ing] his ethical obligations” by “cover[ing] for the administration.”
Litigation:
Ábrego's attorneys filed a motion asking the court to hold the government in contempt for defying its order to return Ábrego from El Salvador. They are demanding personal fines against named officials and reimbursement of legal costs.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Trump administration (J.G.G. v. Trump) in a class-action suit representing the 238 immigrants who were sent to CECOT on the same day as Ábrego, claiming that “The government cannot send people to a notorious foreign gulag without due process and then wash its hands of the situation.” A judge ruled in favor of the ACLU but the administration is appealing the decision.
A judge ruled in 2026 that ICE cannot try to re-detain Ábrego, but DOJ asked her to dissolve this injunction so they could deport him to Liberia—a country to which Ábrego has no ties. The judge refused and the government is now appealing that decision.
A case very similar to Ábrego’s (J.O.P v. DHS) is currently underway, as another immigrant whose legal status prohibited his removal from the US was also wrongly deported to CECOT.
Mahmoud Khalil v. President of the United States of America. This case involves the attempts to remove Khalil from the US. The Third Circuitoverruled the district court and found against Khalil. He plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Legislation: S. 3307 - Inspector General Access Act of 2025 | H.R.7297 - ICE and CBP Constitutional Accountability Act | H.R.4001 - Prohibition on Funding to CECOT Act | S.2838 - Protecting Our Democracy Act | H.R. 7836 - Real Court, Rule of Law Act of 2026 | S.3326 - Temporary Immigration Judge Integrity Act
