Judge Directs Trump Administration to Repatriate Man Wrongly Deported: NPR

GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration on Friday to take swift action to return a Maryland resident who was erroneously deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison, bringing about yet another significant confrontation between the White House and the judiciary.

“This was an unlawful action,” stated U.S. Federal District Judge Paula Xinis during a federal court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, regarding the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who legally resided in the U.S. with a work permit. Abrego Garcia was detained and deported last month—despite having received protection from an immigration judge in 2019 that should have safeguarded him from deportation to El Salvador.

Judge Xinis mandated the government to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7, arguing that his continued presence in El Salvador poses irreparable damage.

“From the moment of his apprehension, it was unconstitutional,” Judge Xinis remarked during the hearing. “Without a document, a warrant, or a probable cause statement, there is no justification for his seizure in the first place. That is my perspective,” the judge explained.

The Justice Department concedes that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an administrative mistake. However, DOJ attorneys contended in court documents that he is associated with the criminal gang MS-13 and that the judge lacks the jurisdiction to demand his return since he is no longer on U.S. soil.

Abrego Garcia’s legal team disputed this assertion in court, labeling it as nonsensical and asserting that the Department of Homeland Security should promptly return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador.

“They appear before this court claiming they’ve done nothing and have exhausted all options,” proclaimed Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys.

Erez Reuveni, a representative for the Justice Department, took a different stance, requesting the judge for additional time to confer with his clients within the Trump administration.

“I ask the court to provide us defendants one more opportunity to resolve this without a court order,” Reuveni implored at the hearing’s conclusion. Judge Xinis dismissed this suggestion.

She pressed Reuveni to elucidate why Abrego Garcia was arrested last month, but he claimed he did not have that information.

Abrego Garcia had been residing in Maryland with his wife and children, all U.S. citizens, when he was taken into custody by ICE officers last month.

“In an instance, our three children lost their father, and I lost my partner, his mother lost her son, and his siblings lost their brother,” expressed Jennifer Vasquez, Abrego Garcia’s wife, during a press conference earlier that Friday in Maryland.

“Our entire family is shattered” due to ICE’s “mistake,” she commented, depicting Abrego García as a devoted father and an outstanding husband who “encourages everyone around him to pursue happiness, even in difficult times.” The White House has portrayed Abrego García as a member of MS-13, presenting him as a public threat.

“You would think this individual was the ideal father, leading a peaceful life in Maryland, which is far from the truth,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists earlier this week.

However, Abrego Garcia’s defenders assert that the government has failed to provide any proof of his affiliation with MS-13. They argue that this claim stems from an informant’s assertion in 2019, which alleged Abrego Garcia’s gang ties in New York—a state where he has never resided—and from the fact that he was seen wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie. His attorneys emphasize that Abrego Garcia possesses no criminal record in the U.S. or any other nation.

During the hearing on Friday, Judge Xinis expressed skepticism toward the Justice Department’s claims against Abrego Garcia.

“In my view, that’s mere chatter. No evidence has been presented to me,” Xinis remarked. “In a court of law, when an individual is accused of belonging to a violent and predatory organization, it requires an indictment, a complaint, and a criminal procedure with thorough process to evaluate facts.”

According to his attorneys, Abrego Garcia was arrested in 2019 by police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, while seeking work as a day laborer in a Home Depot parking lot. Yet, authorities never questioned him regarding MS-13 again or accused him of gang affiliation post that initial arrest.

An immigration judge subsequently granted Abrego Garcia what is known as a withholding of removal, determining that he was likely to face harm if sent back to El Salvador. Attorneys for both the Justice Department and Abrego Garcia concur that this status should have inhibited his deportation to El Salvador last month.

Abrego Garcia was removed from the country on March 15 along with numerous other alleged gang members, who remain confined in a supermax facility in El Salvador.

The Trump administration maintains that all individuals involved have connections to MS-13 or Tren de Aragua, two gangs classified by the U.S. as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Nonetheless, many of the detainees lack criminal records, and immigrant advocates assert these individuals did not have an opportunity to challenge the allegations prior to their deportation.

The lawyers and families of a growing number of those individuals assert they are not gang members and believe they were predominantly targeted for arrest and deportation due to their tattoos.

At the rally in Maryland earlier on Friday, Vasquez expressed solidarity with other mothers and wives whose loved ones have been deported by the Trump administration.

“At the end of the day, our only recourse is our faith and our strength to resist,” Vasquez stated. “We must advocate for our husbands, children, neighbors, and loved ones — support Kilmar and all immigrant families lighting candles for those who have vanished.”