A federal judge on Friday ruled that the United States must bring back a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.
Judge Paula Xinis of the US District Court in Maryland directed the federal government to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, to the US no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 7.
The Trump administration conceded in a court filing Monday it mistakenly deported the Maryland father of three “because of an administrative error,” but said it could not bring him back because he is in Salvadoran custody. It appeared to mark the first time the administration has admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador, which are now at the center of a fraught legal battle.
Over the course of the hearing, Xinis had repeatedly raised issues with Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador, given that an immigration judge had previously granted him withholding of removal, meaning he could suffer persecution if removed from the US to El Salvador. He was still considered removable; it just couldn’t be to El Salvador. Xinis cited that status in her ruling, saying Abrego Garcia was apprehended last month “without legal basis” and deported “without justification of legal basis.”
“This was an illegal act,” Xinis said. “Congress said you can’t do it, and you did it anyway.”
Department of Justice attorney Erez Reuveni conceded to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys’ arguments that he should not have been deported to El Salvador, saying, “Our only arguments are jurisdictional … he should not have been sent to El Salvador.”
Xinis, an Obama appointee, questioned why the US could not bring Abrego Garcia back, given the US’ $6 million contract with the El Salvadorian prison facility, the Center for Terrorism Confinement.
“Why can’t the United States get Mr. Abrego Garcia back?” Xinis asked.
“The first thing I did when I got this case on my desk is ask my clients the same question,” Reuveni responded, but he said that he did not get a direct answer.
“All of this points to a functional control and that if the United States as a contracted party can have functional control of the placement, the wrongful placement, they certainly have the functional control of the return,” Xinis said. Reuveni called his own lack of information on why the US couldn’t bring bring him back “frustrating,” but added, “The United States can’t call someone in El Salvador, have them pick up the phone and say ‘give us our guy back.’”
The DOJ lawyer appeared to suggest that he had asked the government to return Abrego Garcia, but they did not heed his advice. He then asked the judge for 24 hours to go back to the DOJ, but it was unclear exactly what this request was for.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the lawyer for Abrego Garcia, asked for the court to order his client’s return to the US, saying he isn’t asking for “micro-managing” by the court, but that the government be “put on a leash” to ensure this is done in a timely manner. “At least today, it doesn’t seem like they’re taking it seriously,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said after Reuveni’s arguments before the bench.
During the hearing, Xinis also appeared skeptical about Abrego Garcia’s alleged ties to the MS-13 gang, which Trump officials have maintained, saying that she had not seen sufficient evidence to that effect.
“When someone is accused of membership in such a violent and predatory organization, it comes in the form of an indictment, complaint, criminal proceeding that has a robust process,” she said.
The Justice Department didn’t provide additional evidence beyond what’s already been submitted in the case. “The government made a choice here to produce no evidence,” DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni told the judge.
The Trump administration later Friday appealed the judge’s ruling, according to a court filing. The case has been appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
