Trump admin defends arrest of migrant who was sent to El Salvadors hellhole megaprison by mistake: He should be locked up

The Trump administration is defending the arrest of a migrant who was shipped off to El Salvador’s hellhole mega prison by mistake — alleging that he is an MS-13 gang member with a history of human trafficking.The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, from El Salvador, has become a rallying cry for critics of Trump’s tough immigration policy.His lawyers say he’s a Maryland dad, whose wife and young son are both US citizens, and that he was swept up by ICE agents without cause.A judge granted him protection from deportation in 2019 after he filed a petition for asylum, despite him sneaking into the country illegally in 2011.The Trump administration argued that regardless of the error, the court does not have jurisdiction to order his return to the US because Abrego Garcia is in Salvadoran custody.On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security’s spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin hit back at critics who have painted Abrego Garcia as an innocent victim of Trump’s fast-moving deportation raids.“Whether he is in El Salvador or a detention facility in the U.S., he should be locked up,” McLaughlin said on X.Abrego Garcia is a “member of the brutal MS-13 gang,” adding that DHS has “intelligence reports that he is involved in human trafficking.”Immigration agents arrested Abrego Garcia on March 12 as he was driving home from his apprenticeship with a sheet metal worker with his five-year-old son, according to court filings.During the arrest, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on scene told Abrego Garcia that his “status” in the US “has changed.”He was then put on a one-way deportation flight to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center as part of President Trump’s use of the 18th century Alien Enemies Act, which allows the feds to remove migrants without a trial.A story in the Atlantic about his arrest turned national attention to the case.The story revealed that the Trump administration admitted that Abrego Garcia’s “was removed to E...