A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador.
Kilmar Abergo Garcia, who was expelled last month along with hundreds of alleged gang members, must be returned to the US by no later than Monday, US District Judge Paula Xinis ordered.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a recent court filing that deporting Mr Garcia was an “administrative error”. An immigration judge granted him a legal protection from deportation in 2019.
The White House has alleged Mr Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, but his lawyers argued there is no evidence to prove that he is gang-affiliated.
Mr Garcia is one of the 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans, all of whom were described by officials as gang members, who the Trump administration deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot).
But Mr Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, has argued that his client has never been charged with a crime in any country and rejected the gang accusation. He said that the removal was illegal.
“This was the equivalent of a forcible expulsion,” Mr Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
ICE officials said Mr Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error” and an “oversight”, but they have not attempted to resolve the mistake.
Judge Xinis called Mr Garcia’s deportation “an illegal act” when issuing her order on Friday. She said he must be returned by Monday.
“Congress said you can’t do it, and you did it anyway,” she told Justice Department lawyers.
The Department of Homeland Security has continued to argue that the court does not have jurisdiction to order Mr Garcia’s return, because he is not in US custody, but El Salvador’s.
“We suggest the Judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
But US Department of Justice attorney Erez Reuveni, who represented the government in court on Friday, acknowledged that there were issues with Mr Garcia’s deportation. He admitted that he was ”frustrated” by the lack of answers he was able to provide.
The government lawyer conceded that Mr Garcia “should not have been removed”, as the judge persisted in questioning the deportation order, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner.
“There is no warrant for his arrest. There is no statement of probable cause,” Judge Xinis said. “What is the actual document that got this process started?”
Mr Reuveni said he did “not have that order. It is not on the record”.
The justice department lawyer noted that, in his view, “the government made a choice here to produce no evidence”, adding that this “absence of evidence speaks for itself”.
Mr Garcia’s family, including his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura – a US citizen – have been calling for his release since his deportation in mid-March. Ms Sura has told reporters that she has not spoken to her husband since he was taken by US authorities.
Mr Garcia’s lawyer said the claims by the Trump administration that his client could not be returned were “outrageous”.
“They’re coming before this court and saying, ‘We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of options,'” Mr Sandoval-Moshenberg told Judge Xinis.
The case has outraged many who have raised concerns about recent deportations carried out by the Trump administration of noncitizens who are in the US lawfully.
“It’s outrageous that due process means nothing to the federal administration,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, wrote on X this week. “They’ve admitted to making an error and I urge them to correct it.”
The Trump administration has continued to defend its deportations and attack the judges involved, calling their orders politically motivated.
In a post on X, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Judge Xinis as a “Marxist” who “now thinks she’s president of El Salvador”.
