The ongoing effort to prosecute and deport Kilmer Abrego Garcia, a migrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error” but has since been returned to the United States, is continuing to plague the Trump administration, with one attempt by the administration to get itself “out of hot water” falling flat on its face.

Garcia, who had illegally entered the United States at 16 years old, was arrested back in March despite not having been charged with a crime. He was deported to a notoriously violent El Salvadorian prison before being returned by the Trump administration in June under mounting pressure from federal courts.

Now, Garcia remains a high-profile deportation target for the Trump administration, but its efforts continue to come up short, with one move in particular stunning former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance, author of the Civil Discourse newsletter.

“Last week, while he was still in custody, the government offered García a plea deal that involved precisely the kind of prior planning the witness testified it doesn’t do: plead guilty to those paper-thin charges and be deported to Costa Rica with a promise he wouldn’t be incarcerated,” Vance wrote.

“It was a sweetheart deal to get the government out of hot water in a case that, even in its preliminary stages, has caused them a lot of trouble, with the evidence being roundly criticized.”

Garcia would go on to reject the deal, and was released from prison on Friday pending his trial, where he faces charges of human trafficking, charges that critics have said remain flimsy, and based on “inconsistent” evidence.

To make the charges stick, however, Trump’s Justice Department is now relying heavily on the testimony of one witness, a witness that the DOJ had offered a generous deal to in exchange for damning testimony on Garcia, one that left Vance dumbfounded.

“Reports that the government’s key witness, José Ramón Hernández Reyes, was a three-time convicted felon prosecutors gave a deal to in exchange for his testimony,” Vance wrote. “The deal included…discontinuing plans to deport him. You can’t make this stuff up.”

Garcia

arrived in Baltimore, Maryland

on Monday ahead of his requirement to report to immigration officials, where he’s expected to face deportation proceedings. Immigration officials have notified Garcia’s attorney that, with the rejection of their plea deal offer, they will seek to deport him to Uganda.

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