Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who entered the United States illegally multiple times and was previously arrested for child sex crimes, has been at the center of a legal and political controversy. His lawyers have accused the Trump administration of political persecution, alleging that the government is prosecuting him on human trafficking charges in retaliation for exposing an illegal deportation error in March. After being imprisoned in El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was released from criminal custody. A judge in the U.S. subsequently freed him, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has vowed to deport him. The Costa Rican government has expressed willingness to accept Abrego Garcia after he completes any criminal sentence in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized the court ruling that led to his release.