BURSTSenate Democrats demanded the return of a wrongfully deported Maryland man in a Tuesday letter.
“We write to express our concerns regarding the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, an action which the Administration admitted in a recent court filing was an ‘administrative error,’” reads the letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons.
“It is unacceptable that anyone would be deported without proper due process, especially where an immigration judge has granted the individual protected status that explicitly prohibits his return to El Salvador. We demand that the Administration bring Mr. Abrego Garcia home immediately,” the letter continued.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran and Maryland resident, was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration, the administration acknowledged last week. Abrego, who was sent to a facility in El Salvador, was protected from removal by a judge in 2019.
Tuesday’s letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
“Your unwillingness to immediately rectify this ‘administrative error’ is unacceptable,” the senators said in their letter to the Trump administration officials “Under multiple Democratic and Republican administrations, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE followed the rule of law and worked to quickly return people who were wrongfully deported, in the rare instances where such 'administrative errors' occurred.”
It added the Trump administration's "mass deportation agenda does not transcend" the law.
The senators also pressed Lyons and Noem on whether there are other similar cases and asked for how the administration would make certain protected immigrants receive "appropriate due process."
The Hill has reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.