Amicus | He Was Deported by Administrative Error. We Talked to His Lawyer.

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News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US government’s use of a prison in El Salvador as an extra-judicial due-process free black site has been rendered starkly visible by the story of one man they tried to disappear. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick interviews Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, lawyer for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, husband and father, who was illegally deported to El Salvador in March due to what the government admits was an administrative error. Abrego Garcia was abruptly detained by ICE, torn from his family, and sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison despite having legal protections against deportation. The Justice Department now says Abrego Garcia must remain in the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. On Friday a district court judge in Maryland ordered his return. Next, we turn to the Trump administration's disastrous tariffs. Slate's Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to explore the legality of Trump’s latest, inexplicable round of tariffs against the rest of the world, and debate whether the Supreme Court will apply its so-called “major questions doctrine” when a Republican is in the White House. Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.6	Hi, I'm Dahlia Lithwick. Welcome to Amicus. This is Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the Supreme Court.
0:43.3	When I saw it, I immediately broke down.
0:46.3	The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang.
0:58.3	I've seen news of that prison, and I knew they take criminals there.
1:04.1	My husband's not a criminal.
1:05.3	The error that you are referring to was a clerical error.
1:08.1	It was an administrative error.
1:10.2	I was scared for his life.
1:13.1	The historian Tim Snyder, writer Adam Surwer, and others describe the terrorism confinement center in El Salvador or Seekot, simply as a gulag.
1:25.0	How else can you describe the Black black site prison camp that America pays for
1:29.1	to which anyone can be disappeared based on a tattoo or wearing a Chicago Bulls hat? And even if
1:37.4	that disappearing happened in error, which according to the U.S. government this past week can
1:43.0	happen, there's nothing to be done about it.
1:45.9	We're going to speak to the lawyer for a man trapped in this anti-constitutional habeas corpus vacuum,
1:52.3	this Kafka nightmare in just a couple of minutes. After that, Slate Senior writer Mark Joseph Stern is going to join me to talk about the legality of Donald Trump's disastrous tariffs this week. But first.
2:07.6	And first of all, I want to thank El Salvador and their president for their partnership with the United States of America to bring our terrorists here and to incarcerate them and have consequences for the violence that they have perpetuated in our communities.
2:19.9	It was not possible to talk to the men in the background of Secretary of State for Homeland Security,
	...

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