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 Trump administration said Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland but entered the country illegally in 2011, was deported to an El Salvador prison due to an administrative error.