MARYLAND (DC News Now) -- The United States government mistakenly deported a Maryland man to a notorious prison in El Salvador, leaving him stuck there, the Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted in court papers filed Monday. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a citizen and native of El Salvador who lives in Maryland with his wife (a U.S. citizen) and their five-year-old child. Both Abrego Garcia and his wife work full-time to support their family. According to the filing, on March 12, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers stopped Abrego Garcia and informed him that his immigration status had changed. When he was arrested, he had just completed a shift as a sheet metal worker apprentice at a construction site in Baltimore, according to a report from the Associated Press. RELATED STORY | Trump administration admits it wrongly deported man to prison in El Salvador After he was detained, the DOJ said authorities questioned him about gang affiliations before transferring him to a detention center in Texas. A few days later, he was sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum-security prison in his native country. In 2019, Abrego Garcia was served a notice to appear in removal proceedings. During a bond hearing, ICE said a confidential informant reported that Abrego Garcia was an active member of the violent MS-13 gang, according to the DOJ. However, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation, called "withholding of removal," because he could face serious harm or persecution if sent back. Abrego Garcia's attorneys have denied that he has any affiliation with the gang, arguing that he left El Salvador to flee gang violence, according to a report from The Hill. Despite the judge's 2019 order, the DOJ acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador. "On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error," DOJ attorneys wrote in Monday's filing. The next day, a news article showed a photograph of people entering intake at the El Salvador prison. Abrego Garcia's wife identified her husband from the picture based on his tattoos and head scars, the DOJ said. Federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing Now, Abrego Garcia and his two U.S.-citizen family members are suing Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, who leads immigration enforcement. The family is requesting that Abrego Garcia be brought back to the U.S. and that the federal government immediately stop paying El Salvador to detain him. However, the DOJ argues that the court lacks jurisdiction to make a judgment because Abrego Garcia is not in U.S. custody, according to the filing. In addition, the DOJ said the family has not shown they are likely to succeed on the case's merits and that using financial pressures or diplomacy to free Abrego Garcia would threaten U.S. foreign policy. "The heavy interest in the President’s primacy in foreign affairs outweigh the interests on the Plaintiffs’ [Abrego Garcia and his family members] side of the scale. Although the Defendants recognize the financial and emotional hardships to Abrego Garcia’s family, the public interest in not returning a member of a violent criminal gang to the United States outweighs those individual interests," said the DOJ. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement on the deportation of Abrego Garcia, saying in part: The individual in question is a member of the brutal MS-13 gang — we have intelligence reports that he is involved in human trafficking. Whether he is in El Salvador or a detention facility in the U.S., he should be locked up." Tricia McLaughlin ...read more read less