By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-01 21:11:10 | Updated at 2025-04-02 23:42:38
1 day ago
Donald Trump’s hardline immigrant policy faced fresh scrutiny Tuesday after officials admitted that an “administrative error” in the hurried deportation process had sent a man to a notorious El Salvador prison.
The Trump administration touts its sweeping drive against migrants – a key campaign promise – as a crackdown on gang members and other violent criminals.
But mounting claims that a number of individuals with flimsy or no connection to organised crime have been summarily deported has prompted anger among rights groups, Democrats and even some Trump allies, including the influential podcaster Joe Rogan.
A Salvadoran man was living in the US state of Maryland under protected legal status until he was flown to El Salvador with hundreds of other alleged gang members in mid-March, a court filing said Monday.
The flights came just hours after Trump invoked a rarely used wartime power, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, and despite a judge ordering a halt to the deportations.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was accused of being a gang member in 2019 but not convicted of any crime, and a judge had previously ordered that he should not be deported because he could be harmed in El Salvador.
