How Abrego Garcia wound up in the mix remains unclear. The Trump administration frustrated one district court’s attempts to determine what happened by invoking the state secrets privilege over basic questions about the operation; it’s only said that Abrego Garcia was wrongly removed because he was placed on an alternate manifest that failed to note the order barring his removal.

After attorneys sued on Abrego Garcia’s behalf, a district court judge in Maryland, the state in which he was detained, ordered the government to facilitate his return.