Later in 2019, a U.S. immigration judge shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs that had terrorized his family. The Trump administration deported him there anyway, later describing the mistake as “an administrative error” but insisting he was in MS-13.

The Trump administration now claims Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t deported by mistake, as the Justice Department said, but was “the right person sent to the right place.”