Border czar Tom Homan is defending the Trump administration’s decision to deport 29-year-old Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a brutal prison camp in El Salvador, even though the administration admitted his removal was due to an “administrative error.”

“The alien’s to blame. The aliens are to blame when they enter this country illegally,” Homan told Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo on Saturday, claiming that if Abrego Garcia had not unlawfully entered the U.S in the first place, he would not be held at the notorious Salvadorian prison.

Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was working in the country legally as a sheet metal apprentice under a permit. He was originally barred from deportation in 2019 after an immigration judge ruled that he would likely face persecution by local gangs back in his native country of El Salvador.

However, Abrego Garcia was deported last month after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the MS-13 gang. Homan repeated the administration’s allegations on Salcedo’s show despite Abrego Garcia’s attorney saying there was no evidence he was in a gang.

“He’s an MS-13 gang member, according to our intelligence and even that of the intelligence of El Salvador,” Homan said. “He was given withholding and removal from El Salvador because of fear of gang violence.”

However, ICE’s Robert Cerna testified in court last month that the agency made an “administrative error” when deporting Abrego Garcia.

Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni also conceded in court that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Pam Bondi took Reuveni off the case and put him on administrative leave shortly after the hearing.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S by midnight Monday. The Supreme Court upheld Xinis’s ruling on Thursday and ordered the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

On Friday, Xinis directed the Justice Department to provide daily updates on Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and their efforts to bring him back.

“The Supreme Court said we’ll facilitate. We’ll facilitate,” Homan told Salcedo. “However, we’ve got to remember, he’s an El Salvadoran national and in custody of the El Salvadoran government. So, you know, we’ll facilitate what we can, but I think we made the right decision.”