Judge orders US to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador prison

GREENBELT, Md. ― In a blow to the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled Friday the U.S. government acted illegally when it mistakenly deported a Maryland father to El Salvador and ordered that he must be returned to the United States. “This was an illegal act,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland said of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Xinis gave the administration until 11:59 p.m. Monday to remove Abrego Garcia from the violent El Salvador prison where he is being held and return him to U.S. soil. Abrego Garcia, 29, was among the hundreds of alleged members of crime gangs MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua the government expelled from the U.S. to El Salvador last month. Abrego Garcia, who had fled El Salvador as a teenager to escape gang violence, was pulled over by federal immigration agents near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, on March 12 and arrested. Three days later, he was expelled and sent back to El Salvador even though he had won a court order six years earlier barring his removal. The Trump administration acknowledged in court records earlier this week that his deportation was a mistake, which it attributed to an “administrative error.” But the U.S. government says it has no jurisdiction to order his return because he is in a foreign country. 'Devastated and confused': A Maryland dad was sent to El Salvador prison by mistake. Can his community get him back? Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and their 5-year-old son, who are both U.S. citizens, sued the government demanding his return. During a hearing on Friday, Xinis ripped into Justice Department lawyers over Abrego Garcia's arrest and questioned the government's claim it could not get him back. If federal authorities were able to strike terms and conditions for his placement in El Salvador, "then certainly they have the functional control to unwind the decision – the wrong decision," she said. Get the Daily Briefing newsletter in your inbox. The day's top stories, from sports to movies to politics to world events. Delivery: Daily Your Email Erez Reuveni, the Justice Department’s attorney, conceded under questioning from Xinis that Abrego Garcia should not have been expelled and said he also had questioned why the government could not bring him back to the U.S. "My answer to a lot of these questions is going to be frustrating, and I am frustrated,” Reuveni said. A wife struggles: Trump banished her husband to El Salvador. Work and worry are all she has left. Xinis also questioned the government's claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13. “In a court of law, when someone is accused in such a violent and predatory organization, it comes in the form of an indictment, complaint, a criminal proceeding that has then a robust process so that we can assess the facts," she said. "I haven’t heard that from the government." While the judge sparred with the government's lawyers, Vasquez Sura sat at a table with her family's attorneys, a box of tissues next to her. Afterward, she left the courthouse to applause from supporters who rallied outside to call for her husband's return. “We will continue this fight to get my husband back,” Vasquez Sura said in brief remarks in Spanish following the judge's decision. Lawyers for the federal government have appealed the case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested Xinis should contact El Salvador President Nayib Bukele "because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador." Immigration rights groups condemn deportation Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was detained by federal immigration agents while his son, pictured here, was in the backseat. The Trump administration has said his deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador was a clerical error. Abrego Garcia's deportation was complicated by the fact that a court order issued in a separate case six years ago had barred his expulsion. In March 2019, he was arrested outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he was looking for work, after a confidential informant testified that he was an active member of the MS-13 gang, according to government lawyers. His attorneys say he was not a member of MS-13, and the government offered scant evidence to back up its claim. 'A plain abuse of power": ICE detains grandmother who hid in churches during first Trump administration A court ordered him deported to El Salvador, but Abrego Garcia applied for asylum, asking for protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. In court filings, he said he had come to the United States because the Barrio 18 gang, which is rivals with MS-13, was extorting and threatening him and his family for their pupusa business in their San Salvador neighborhood and pressuring him to join the gang. A U.S. immigration judge found he was deportable but issued an order in October 2019 that protected him from removal. Abrego Garcia’s arrest and deportation to El Salvador has been condemned by immigrant rights advocates and others. Minutes before Friday's hearing, chants led by people in pink vests – reading “Rapid Response Choir” –could be heard from the rally gathered outside the federal courthouse in suburban Maryland. A few police officers stood to the side. The chants, calling for Abrego Garcia's release, continued after the hearing began. A man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is led by force by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, who represented the family during the hearing, said they’ve had no contact Abrego Garcia, nor have attorneys the family hired in El Salvador. Sandoval-Moshenberg urged the government to comply with the order to bring Abrego Garcia back. He also said it’d be unlikely Abrego Garcia would get sent to another country, given there’s a court order blocking the administration from deporting people to countries they’re not from. But Sandoval-Moshenberg said he wouldn’t declare victory until Abrego Garcia is back in the U.S. Abrego Garcia's supporters, however, celebrated the judge's ruling. “This government tried to disappear Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” said the Rev. Michael Vanacore of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in nearby Wheaton, Maryland. “It was very important to hear his name read aloud in positive judgment by the court, saying that he should be returned.” 'Uncertainty and even fear': Trump's expanded ICE raids are causing big problems for some schools At the rally, Vanacore recited a phrase familiar to other Latinos whose loved ones are gone: Saying “presente” after the missing person’s name. “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, presente,” he said in Spanish, pleading to God for his safe return. Immigration lawyers call ruling significant Abrego Garcia's case was one example of the fits and starts the Trump administration has gone through in strengthening immigration enforcement. A federal judge in the District of Columbia has temporarily blocked the deportation of alleged members of Venezuela's crime gang Tren de Aragua until they have a chance to deny their membership. Three judges in different states have blocked Trump's order denying citizenship to the children of immigrants who have no legal authorization to be in the country. Ben Johnson, executive director of the group American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Friday's ruling will show whether the administration or the courts will correct mistakes in the Trump administration’s policy aiming for mass deportations. “This is a very big deal because it’s going to tell us whether either the administration is going to follow judicial orders or whether any of the mistakes that the administration makes are irreparable,” Johnson said. “Because the administration is doing so much of this in secret, it’s very hard to know what the remedies are for getting this wrong.” Linda Dakin-Grimm, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said the case is significant because the administration is resisting it. “Other administrations might have just returned the guy and killed the issue,” Dakin-Grimm said. Another significant aspect of the Maryland case is how quickly swiftly the judge reached a decision – in days rather than months or years, she said. “What strikes me is how quickly this happened,” Dakin-Grimm said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.