As criticism of that stance spread, and federal courts sided against the administration, Vice President J. D. Vance, the Trump adviser Stephen Miller, Bondi, and other top Cabinet officials went on the attack. The White House went from calling Abrego Garcia’s deportation a “clerical error” to insisting that no mistake had been made at all.

The government claims he’s a member of the MS-13 gang, which his wife and attorney deny, and deported him to El Salvador despite a judge’s 2019 order barring him from being sent there.