WATCH: White House says without evidence that man deported to El Salvador by mistake was gang member

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that a man who had protected legal status yet was deported by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador was an MS-13 leader.

“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,” Leavitt told reporters at a White House briefing.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, had been working as a sheet metal apprentice in Baltimore when he was arrested on March 12. He was deported and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador where the Trump administration has arranged to send migrants alleged to be gang members.

Abrego Garcia and his lawyers have denied he is a gang member. He was allowed to stay in the U.S. when an immigration judge in 2019 found that it was likely he would face the threat of gang violence if returned to El Salvador.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials admitted in a court filing Monday that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error.”

Leavitt acknowledged the error but said there was “a lot of evidence” that Abrego Garcia was a “convicted” gang member. She did not share the evidence during the briefing.

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