A US court has ordered the Trump administration to bring back a young father who was mistakenly deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was flown to his native El Salvador on March 15 after what immigration officials now admit was an "administrative error".
The 29-year-old father came to the US as a teenager fleeing gang violence and extortion, according to court documents filed by his lawyers.
In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported to El Salvador on the basis he faced legitimate fear of persecution there.
But in March, immigration officials ignored that ruling and sent him to El Salvador's Cecot prison, which some observers say is rife with human rights abuses.
A federal judge in Maryland, where Mr Abrego Garcia lived, has now given the US government until midnight Monday, local time, to arrange for his return.
Before the hearing, Abrego Garcia's wife — a US citizen — urged supporters outside to keep fighting for him and others caught up in the Trump administration's immigration blitz.
"To all the wives, mothers, children who also face this cruel separation, I stand with you in this bond of pain," Jennifer Vasquez Sura said.
"To everyone who can hear my voice, keep fighting for Kilmar and all the Kilmars out there whose stories are waiting to be heard."
Mr Abrego Garcia is one of hundreds of migrants deported to the Salvadoran prison after immigration officials determined they were gang members. But advocates, lawyers and loved ones say the men were arrested without due process, and insist some are innocent.
The White House says Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang and that US courts lack jurisdiction over the matter because he is no longer on American soil.
"He's not some American father as the mainstream media will make you believe," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News.
"He's actually a member of MS-13, and was involved in trafficking.
"It's unbelievable, the framing of this. Whether this man is in El Salvador or in a US detention centre, he should be locked up."
But his lawyers say there's no evidence he was ever affiliated with any gang and the allegation is based a confidential informant's claim that he was a gang member in New York, where he has never lived.
Ms Vasquez Sura, who has three children with Abrego Garcia, including one with special needs, said his deportation had broken her family.
"In the blink of an eye, our three children lost their father and I lost the love of my life," she said.
"The pain I feel is unreal. On nights when I get a couple of hours' sleep, I wake up in the same nightmare — alone, confused, in a broken home empty without Kilmar."
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal apprentice, had a permit to work in the US.
"When Kilmar was abducted, he wasn't doing anything wrong," Michael Coleman, from the union representing sheet metal workers, told the rally outside court.
"In fact, he'd just picked up his five-year-old son after a long day of work.
"We all need to imagine if this were to happen to us, one of our family members, one of our friends, taken into custody illegally … without any sign of due process."
The case has sent chills through immigrant communities across the US. Some say they fear it could be them or one of their relatives next.
Roxy Mejia, a Maryland resident who was also born in El Salvador, joined the rally to show support for Abrego Garcia's family.
She told the ABC she's scared for her own future.
"I'm a citizen but any given day this administration doesn't follow the law so they can actually take my citizenship away if they feel that they don't want me here."
"I will fight as hard as I can with all my community to ensure [Kilmar comes home] and to make it so loud, Trump cannot ignore us."
Fears Mr Trump's immigration crackdown is leading to errors has also prompted criticism from some of his most high-profile supporters.
Last week, popular podcaster Joe Rogan referred to a recent deportation operation as "horrific".
"You got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons," he said on The Joe Rogan Experience.
He referenced the case of Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, a makeup artist from Venezuela. Advocates say he was wrongly accused of being a gang member because of his tattoos, which feature crowns above the words "mom" and "dad".
"Let's not let innocent gay hairdressers get lumped up with the gangs," Rogan said.
A US District Judge is now examining whether to hold Trump officials in contempt for violating his orders to halt the use of the Alien Enemies Act in the deportations. The 1798 law has historically been used to remove or detain foreign citizens during war.
Judge James Boasberg last month ordered the government to immediately turn around deportation flights bound for El Salvador, pending a legal challenge to the use of the wartime act.
But two flights continued to El Salvador on the day of the hearing, with lawyers for the Trump administration arguing Judge Boasberg's oral direction was not binding.
