Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran living in Maryland, had a 2019 court order barring his removal to El Salvador. He was deported there anyway in March 2025; the government called it an administrative error but said he was an MS-13 member, which he denies. In April 2025 the Supreme Court said the government must “facilitate” his return. He was brought back to face a smuggling charge in Tennessee, which was dismissed in May 2026 on vindictive-prosecution grounds; litigation over sending him to a third country continues. [1][2]
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 lets the president detain or deport citizens of a hostile nation in wartime or invasion. Trump invoked it against Venezuelans he said belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang and flew more than 200 to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. The Supreme Court said in April 2025 that detainees must get notice and a chance to challenge their removal in habeas proceedings. In August 2026 the Fifth Circuit dismissed one challenge as moot because the named detainees had already been removed under ordinary immigration law, which left the wartime-law question undecided. Many families and lawyers said their relatives had no gang ties; the government did not make individual evidence public. [3][4]
In July 2025 El Salvador sent 252 Venezuelans held in CECOT back to Venezuela in a swap for 10 Americans held there. [5][6]
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