A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to bring back a man the government admits it wrongly deported to prison in El Salvador.

In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that allowed him to stay in America due to fear he would be persecuted by local gangs in his home country of El Salvador.

On Friday, a district court judge, Paula Xinis, called Mr. Garcia’s deportation an “illegal act.” Judge Xinis ordered the government to return Mr. Garcia to America by April 7. 

The Trump administration alleges that Mr. Garcia has ties to the gang MS-13. The immigration judge that allowed Mr. Garcia to be shielded from deportation in 2019 also found that it was likely he was a gang member but said his fear of persecution was credible and allowed him to stay in America. 

Mr. Garcia’s attorneys have denied the allegation that he has ties to gangs and questioned the government’s evidence against their client. 

The government has said it made an “administrative error” in deporting Mr. Garcia but insists it has no authority to arrange his return from the notorious prison he was sent to. 

During Friday’s hearing, Judge Xinis grilled Justice Department lawyers about what authority was used to deport Mr. Garcia.

The Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, said he was “frustrated” that he did not have answers for the judge.

When asked why Mr. Garcia was sent to a prison in El Salvador, Mr. Reuveni said, “I don’t know. That information has not been given to me.” 

He also told Judge Xinis that he has not received an “answer that I find satisfactory” about why the administration insists it cannot arrange Mr. Garcia’s return to America. 

An attorney for Mr. Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, previously said America can simply “ask [El Salvador] nice to please gim him back to us.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Sandavol-Moshenberg pointed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s visit to the prison in El Salvador to suggest the administration could get his client back. 

“Their argument that there’s nothing they could possibly do to get this guy back is significantly weakened by the fact that, on Wednesday of last week, they put Kristi Noem inside that prison,” he told the Associated Press. “They didn’t so much as ask and say, ‘By the way, you got this one guy. We messed up. Can we have him back, please?’”