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.

President Trump’s aides have dug in on insisting that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was lawfully sent to a prison in El Salvador after the administration had admitted to an “administrative error.”

A federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday granted the Trump administration's request to delay answering questions about the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.