He landed a job as a sheet metal apprentice, married and had a son, and moved into a white-brick house in a Maryland middle-class neighborhood. But then it all changed. Federal immigration agents pulled Abrego Garcia over on March 12 and arrested him as his 5-year-old autistic son watched from the back seat.

On March 15, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The administration said it sent two flights to El Salvador that day carrying deportees processed under the rarely used wartime statute and a third flight carrying people deported under other rules.

The case has raised questions not only about how the man could have ended up on a plane to El Salvador, but also about why the administration has apparently not moved to correct its mistake.