Trump's Trials - Kilmar Abrego Garcia has become a symbol of the pitfalls of immigration enforcement

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Immigration attorneys and advocates see Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case as a symbol of the bigger travails of mass deportation, as NPR's Ximena Bustillo reports.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. We're under invasion from within. If you're not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will. We all serve at the pleasure of the president. The golden age of America is upon us. We are in the golden age. Every episode of Trump's terms, we bring you NPR's latest coverage of the 47th president.

With a focus on actions and policies he is pursuing on his own terms and in the process, taking the presidency into uncharted territory. Today's story starts right after this. Kilmar Abrago-Gar Garcia was living and working in Maryland when the Trump administration detained him and deported him to El Salvador last spring. They later admitted the deportation was a mistake. A judge ordered him returned to the U.S., which did happen eventually, and the case has become a symbol for the problems of immigration enforcement over the past year. Immigration attorneys and advocates say Abrago-Garcia's case is not the only time someone was mistakenly deported. NPR's Hamanah Bustillo is here to explain. Hi, Hamanah.

Hey, Scott. Remind us what happened here. So an immigration judge had previously provided a protection from deportation specifically to El Salvador. And Abragoa Garcia quickly became a symbol for the Trump administration's clashes with the courts and the pitfalls of a quickly implemented mass deportation agenda. Here's one of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Motionberg. The government since day one has really tried to use this case to make the point that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want to whomever they want, and specifically the federal courts don't have the power to stop them. The Trump administration did return him to the U.S.

and immediately charged him with human smuggling. Abrigo Garcia is now out of detention and awaiting trial in Maryland, and he denies those allegations. I mentioned this is not the only time something like this has happened. You've covered similar cases. Right. The administration has admitted to deporting others in error. Two other men were wrongfully deported to El Salvador and neither has returned. according to court documents. Another man, also known in court documents as OCG, had a similar protection from deportation specifically to Guatemala. He was deported to Mexico and then sent to Guatemala after that anyways.

His lawyers tell me that he was in hiding there until immigration officials from the U.S. facilitated his return back here. I spoke with Darylind of the American Immigration Council, and she said wrongful deportations happen across administrations regardless of political parties. There are errors that happen when different parts of the system aren't communicating well or when things are moving too fast. And things moving too fast is really where we've seen this administration lean in. Walk me through the legal definition here of a wrongful deportation. Right. Lawyers tend to break down about three types of wrongful deportations.

First, we have people with some form of protection from deportation. An example of this could be a person with deferred action for childhood arrivals or DACA, that's a program for some people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Second is people who are deportable but are sent to countries that immigration judges had agreed they would face danger or torture and they're sent there against those legal orders anyways. So like Abrago Garcia. And then sometimes people have due process claims, right? But then they're deported before they can argue the cases.

Right. That's the third way. And sometimes it's happened even after federal judges have made it clear that they should not be deported yet. So this has happened over time. What stands out to you about what is different with the mistakes that are happening under the Trump administration? So this administration, lawyers told me, is shining a bigger spotlight on immigration and trying to act as quickly as possible. So both those things make mistakes more likely and also more noticeable. Now, in some instances, the Trump administration has facilitated the return of people removed, but not always. Lawyers have

lost touch with their clients. Deadlines are pushing. for weeks, and accountability seems limited. Here's Lind again. However, what we've seen in the cases that have come up, like Kilmara-Bredo-Garcia is a great example of this, right? Like, the government could respond to the revelation of the error by saying, oh, wow, this is our screw-up. We violated the law. We're going to take responsibility to get that person back in the U.S. or we get that person out of the country where they shouldn't have been deported to. And they have not taken that attitude. What does this all say about the broader immigration system? It tells us that it's a really confusing system. DHS told me in response to these cases that, you know, it's still going to deport people who should be deported and they dispute the facts and judges' decisions. At the same time, there are many different people who can decide an immigrant's fate at different levels and parts of government. And these parts are not always talking to each other. So the space for mistakes just gets bigger.

And PR's Homena Bustillo. Thanks so much. Thank you. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find out. more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thank you for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.