Border Czar Tom Homan Disputes Deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia was ‘Error,’ Repudiates Claim by Fired DOJ Lawyer

Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan, who officially serves as the White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, on Monday disputed the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filing, which asserted Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador last month “in error.”

Despite being deemed likely to be a member of the Central American gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Abrego Garcia has denied this, and in 2019 received a final deportation order that included a “withholding of removal” precluding his deportation to one of two nations, either Guatemala or El Salvador. Abrego Garcia argues this order was violated by his removal last month, and a former DOJ attorney stated in a legal filing that he was deported as the result of an “administrative error.”

“I don’t accept the term ‘error’ in Abrego Garcia. There was an oversight, there was a withholding order. But things have changed,” said Homan.

Homan argued, “The facts surrounding the withholding order have changed,” declaring Abrego Garcia “is now a terrorist,” likely referencing the Trump administration’s recent classification of MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Acknowledging that Abrego Garcia argued that he faced persecution at the hands of Barrio 18, another Central American gang, Homan argued that it is no longer present in El Salvador.

“The gang he was fearing, [preventing] being removed to El Salvador, no longer exists,” said Homan. “The facts around that case are totally different, I’ll let the lawyers litigate that.”

Homan made the statement amid questions around the final deportation order for Abrego Garcia which was signed by U.S. Immigration Judge David M. Jones in 2019, when the judge inexplicably referenced Guatemala four times, and specifically ruled that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to demonstrated conditions in Guatemala improved to the point where Abrego Garcia could be deported there.

As the result of an Open Records Request seeking documents and video from the Tennessee Highway Patrol stop of Abrego Garcia in December 2022, The Tennessee Star learned on Tuesday that Abrego Garcia, despite being deported from the country in March, is now part of an active investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

A highway patrol spokesman recently told The Star that Abrego Garcia was released at the instruction of the “Biden-era FBI.”

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].