Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a Salvadoran man living in the United States, was illegally deported on March 15, 2025, by the US government under the Trump administration, which called it "an administrative error". At the time, he had never been charged with or convicted of a crime in either country; despite this, he was imprisoned without trial in the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). His case became the most prominent of the hundreds of migrants the US sent to be jailed without trial at CECOT under the countries' agreement where the US would pay the Salvadoran government to imprison US deportees there. The administration defended the deportation and accused Garcia of being a member of MS-13—a US-designated terrorist organization—based on a determination made during a 2019 immigration court bail proceeding. Abrego Garcia has denied the allegation.
Abrego Garcia grew up in El Salvador, and around 2011, at age 16, he illegally immigrated to the United States to escape gang threats. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him withholding of removal status due to the danger he would face from gang violence if he returned to El Salvador. This status allowed him to live and work legally in the US. At the time of his deportation in 2025, he lived in Maryland with his wife and children who are all American citizens, and he was complying with annual US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-ins.
After Abrego Garcia was deported, his wife filed suit in Maryland asking that the US government return him to the US. The district court judge ordered the government to "facilitate and effectuate" his return. The government appealed, and on April 10, 2025, the Supreme Court stated unanimously that the government must "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return to the US. The administration interpreted "facilitate" to mean it was not obligated to seek his release, and it was up to El Salvador whether to release him.
On June 6, 2025, the federal government returned Abrego Garcia to the US, and the Department of Justice announced that he had been indicted in Tennessee for "conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain" and "unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain". He was jailed in Tennessee. A federal judge in Tennessee ruled that he could be released pending trial, but after his lawyers expressed concern that he might be immediately deported again, she ordered that he remain in prison for his own protection. On July 23, the Maryland and Tennessee courts simultaneously ordered that he be released from prison and prohibited his immediate deportation after release. A month later, he was released on bail, and he returned to Maryland. ICE officials said that they intended to place him in immigration detention as soon as possible, and would initiate proceedings to deport him to a third country. He was detained by ICE a few days later.
Background
Abrego Garcia, pictured in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement document dated 2019
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was born in the Los Nogales neighborhood of San Salvador, El Salvador, in July 1995. In El Salvador, the Barrio 18 criminal gang extorted his mother's pupusa (a street food) business for money and threatened that if she did not pay the money, they would force her eldest son, Cesar, to join the gang; the gang later threatened to kill him. As a result, the family paid the money and hid Cesar, eventually sending him to the United States. Barrio 18 then turned its attention to Kilmar, who was around 12 years old. The gang followed Kilmar and continued to threaten his family. Eventually, when Kilmar was 16 years old, his family sent him to the US as well. Court documents indicate that around 2011 or 2012, he illegally crossed the Mexico–US border near McAllen, Texas. In other court documents, the government stated that he entered the US "at or near an unknown place on or about an unknown date".
From the US border, Abrego Garcia traveled to Maryland in order to live with his brother Cesar, who became a US citizen. In 2016, Abrego Garcia met Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a US citizen, and they later married. After marrying, the couple had one child, whom they raised alongside Vasquez Sura's two children from an earlier relationship. All three children have special needs; the son born to the couple has autism and a hearing defect, and is "unable to communicate verbally". Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his family, and at the time of his deportation had not been charged with or convicted of any criminal offense, including gang membership, in the US or El Salvador.
2019 detention and bond hearings
In March 2019, Abrego Garcia and three other men were stopped for loitering in Hyattsville, Maryland, in the parking lot of a Home Depot store where his lawyers say they were seeking work as day laborers. A Hyattsville Police Department (HPD) incident report, which names the other men but not Abrego Garcia, said that an officer "approached them because he saw members of the group 'stashing something underneath a car'". The HPD incident report does not mention any suspicion of gang membership, but Ivan Mendez, a detective with the Prince George's County Police Department (PGPD) gang unit, said that the HPD officer contacted the gang unit because the officer recognized another of the men as a member of the MS-13 Sailors clique. MS-13, a rival of Barrio 18, began in immigrant communities in Los Angeles and has ties to several Central and South American countries. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has described MS-13 cliques as "smaller groups operating in a specific city or region". Several PGPD detectives with the gang unit interviewed the four men, and said they "had reasonable suspicion, based upon their training and experience" that Abrego Garcia and two of the other men "displayed traits associated with MS-13 gang culture", for which police cited tattoos, clothing, and "information from a source". None of the men were charged with any crime, and Abrego Garcia denied any connection to MS-13.
Mendez was suspended from the PGPD in April 2019 for "misconduct in office" unrelated to the incident with Abrego Garcia. In 2021, the local prosecutor's office included Mendez in a "do not call" list of officers judged to be unreliable, and he was terminated in December 2022 after pleading guilty to misconduct and accepting the department's proposal of his termination.
The PGPD transferred custody of Abrego Garcia to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to initiate deportation proceedings, and the police department later said that it had no further interactions with him after the 2019 stop. The PGPD and ICE paperwork for Abrego Garcia included some inconsistencies, with the PGPD stating that he was picked up for loitering, and ICE stating that he was picked up in connection with a murder investigation. In addition, the ICE paperwork stated both that "Abrego-Garcia is not claiming fear of returning to his country" and that "Abrego-Garcia is claiming fear of returning to his home country of El Salvador." The government did not subsequently allege any connection to a murder investigation.
In the legal proceedings, the US government stated Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 because "he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations" when arrested, and alleged that such clothes are "indicative of the Hispanic gang culture". MS-13 had previously adopted the Chicago Bulls logo as a gang symbol. Vasquez Sura later said that the sweatshirt was a gift from her to Abrego Garcia, bought from Fashion Nova "because she liked the design", and The New York Times described that design as having images of "rolls of money and the face of Benjamin Franklin – not presidents, as the police report said". The Washington Post said the images were "Franklin's face as printed on the $100 bill" with "green bands covering the eyes, ears and mouth".
Officials also said they spoke to a "past and proven reliable confidential source" who "advised" them that Abrego Garcia was an active gang member with the moniker "Chele". The government said the informant alleged that Abrego Garcia was active with MS-13's Western clique, which, according to his immigration lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, is based in New York, where Abrego Garcia has never lived. Sandoval-Moshenberg cited the DOJ and the Suffolk County district attorney's office regarding the Western clique's location. However, Mia Cathell of the Washington Examiner noted that Prince George's County, where Abrego Garcia lived, is in the greater Washington, DC, area, and she cited an unrelated 2011 DOJ indictment that said six MS-13 cliques operated in that area in 2011, including the Western clique. The informant also said Abrego Garcia held the MS-13 rank of chequeo; according to MS-13 author Steven Dudley, chequeo is not a rank within MS-13 but refers to yet-to-be-initiated recruits.
Abrego Garcia requested a bond hearing, which the American Bar Association describes as "typically informal affairs, not substitutes for trial or even for discovery. Often the opposing parties simply describe to the judicial officer the nature of their evidence; they do not actually produce it." Elizabeth Kessler, the immigration judge who presided over the bond hearing, noted that some information provided by ICE and the PGPD appeared to be "at odds with" each other, but determined the informant's claim was sufficient evidence in support of his gang membership to deny Abrego Garcia's request for bond, and to hold him pending a full review. On appeal, a second judge upheld that ruling, finding that the claim was not clearly wrong. As a bond hearing decision, this was not a determination that he was a gang member, but instead limited to whether to release him from custody.
Vasquez Sura said the government had "absolutely no evidence" and "Kilmar is not and has never been a gang member". Abrego Garcia had never been charged with a crime, and The Washington Post reported that no court ever made a "full adjudication" of whether he was indeed a gang member.
In Abrego Garcia's hearing, neither the PGPD officers nor the confidential informant were cross-examined. Standards of evidence in US immigration hearings are lower than in trials: the government's claims are assumed to be true, while the burden of proof rests with the defendant. Additionally, "Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien" forms—which consist largely of hearsay and are thus inadmissible in other proceedings—are admissible in immigration courts and are considered "inherently trustworthy".
Withholding of removal status
Abrego Garcia applied for asylum after his request for bail was refused, saying he feared returning to El Salvador due to threats of persecution and torture. A judge denied his request for asylum, as asylum applications must be submitted within one year of one's arrival in the United States.
Abrego Garcia also applied for "withholding of removal" status. This request was granted by immigration judge David M. Jones, who issued a removal order but barred deportation to El Salvador, saying that Abrego Garcia faced a "clear probability of future persecution" in the country, and he "demonstrated that [El Salvador's][e] authorities were and would be unable or unwilling to protect him." The judge wrote that Abrego Garcia provided "substantial documentation" in favor of his claims and that his testimony was "internally consistent, externally consistent", and "appeared free of embellishment".
Withholding of removal is "similar to asylum" but requires a higher burden of proof, and does not preclude potential deportation to a third country not covered by the status. Unless that occurs, those granted withholding of removal are allowed to live and work lawfully in the US. The immigration judge enters a deportation order, then tells the government they cannot execute that order, hence withholding removal. Immigrants are ineligible for withholding of removal if they have been convicted of aggravated felonies, are suspected to have committed a serious crime prior to their arrival in the US, or are judged to present a security risk to the US. Unlike asylum, recipients cannot become eligible for a green card and permanent residency to gain a path to citizenship.
ICE did not appeal the judge's ruling, and released Abrego Garcia from custody. The US Department of Homeland Security granted him a work permit, and he lived and worked legally in Maryland. He was required to check in with ICE annually, with which he complied. While Abrego Garcia was still detained and awaiting the resolution of his deportation proceedings, he married Jennifer Vasquez Sura in June 2019. The two were separated by glass, and an officer gave them both their wedding rings. Later in 2019, Vasquez Sura gave birth to their son. Abrego Garcia continued working to support his family. He became a sheet metal apprentice in September 2024, and was pursuing his journeyman's license at the time of his deportation.
Later legal issues
Abrego Garcia faced several allegations of domestic abuse from his wife, none of which resulted in charges being filed. Vasquez Sura said that the abuse started in November 2019, about a month after he was released from ICE detention, and that in addition to abusing her, he was also breaking things in the house out of anger. She filled out paperwork for a protective order, but did not show up in court after Abrego Garcia's family convinced her not to. In 2020, she again applied for a protective order, and a judge granted temporary protection and ordered Abrego Garcia to move out of the house. Vasquez Sura requested that the order be rescinded eight days later, so that Abrego Garcia could attend their son's first birthday party, and she did not show up at the subsequent court hearing. Vasquez Sura sought another protective order in 2021, alleging that Abrego Garcia had physically attacked her on multiple occasions, and once again the application was dismissed when she did not appear for the hearing. In 2025, looking back at the period of alleged abuse, she said that Abrego Garcia "was traumatized" from his seven months in ICE detention, and that they were also dealing with other stressors, including "caring for our children with barely enough to get by". She said that with the help of counseling, "We closed that chapter. We were mature enough to look for help."
On either November 30 or December 1, 2022, at a traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Tennessee, Abrego Garcia and eight others were pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for speeding and veering out of his lane. A Department of Homeland Security report stated that Abrego Garcia informed the Tennessee Highway Patrol officer that he was driving from Houston, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri, to Temple Hills, Maryland, to transport people to a construction job, and had been driving for three days at that point. The officer stated suspicion of human trafficking because there was no luggage in the vehicle. The Highway Patrol processed his driver's license and found that it was expired and contained a note to inform federal officers due to Garcia's alleged affiliations with MS-13. The agency contacted ICE, which declined to take Abrego Garcia into custody. No charges were filed against him.
Trump administration deportation policy
During his 2024 campaign for president of the United States, Donald Trump pledged that if elected, he would enact the largest mass deportation operation in US history against both authorized and unauthorized immigrants in the United States and that he would deport over 10 million people through sweeping immigration raids. After Trump's inauguration, he began an immigration crackdown.
In February, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele offered the US the use of El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a prison notorious for harsh conditions, to imprison criminal deportees of any nationality, including Americans. After diplomatic negotiations by the Trump administration, El Salvador agreed to imprison deportees from the US at CECOT for US$6 million per year.
Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deportations to El Salvador
See also: Alien Enemies Act and March 2025 American deportations of Venezuelans
Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 designating the transnational gangs Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. On March 14, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which gives the president wartime authority to summarily arrest and deport citizens of a nation at war with or invading the US, and claimed that Tren de Aragua was perpetrating an invasion of the United States. The next day, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans and dozens of Salvadorans, flying them to El Salvador to be imprisoned in CECOT. Trump asserted that many of the deported Venezuelans are Tren de Aragua members, and used the Alien Enemies Act to deport them. The Salvadorans and other Venezuelans were sent to CECOT via regular deportation. Trump also asserted that the Salvadorans are MS-13 members. El Salvador's ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga, said that Bukele had specifically asked for MS-13 leaders to be included among those deported to El Salvador as "an issue of honor". However, most deportees had no criminal history and were detained based on evidence such as tattoos and clothing that the Trump administration said were proof of gang ties.
The deportees arrived in El Salvador after the judge in J.G.G. v. Trump had issued a temporary restraining order that paused deportations under the Alien Enemies Act and had ordered any such flights stopped or turned around. In response, Bukele wrote on social media: "Oopsie... Too late 😂."
Terrorism Confinement Center
CECOT is a maximum security prison in El Salvador. Prisoners are held in large concrete cells that the Associated Press reports can house 65 to 70 individuals. Some human rights groups claim that the cells sometimes hold as many as 150 inmates, with the prison's director saying "where you can fit 10 people, you can fit 20". The cells are furnished with four-story bunks of bare metal without mattresses or sheets, and lack enough bunks for everyone. Each cell has two toilets, two sinks (reported by CNN as a cement basin and plastic bucket for washing, and a jug of drinking water), and two Bibles. The windowless cells are artificially lit 24 hours a day, and the temperature can reach 35 °C (95 °F) in daytime. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells for 30 minutes each day for group exercise in the hallway. There are no visits, letters, workshops, or prison educational programs, and prisoners are not allowed outside. Food is served without utensils, to keep them from being fashioned into weapons.
CNN said two sources told it the deportees' situation is less regimented, but with the same facilities. The prison director said of the deportees, "there are no privileges."
El Salvador's Minister of Justice has said those held at CECOT would never return to their communities. Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, said CECOT appeared to be used "to dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty". Cristosal [es], which the BBC described as El Salvador's primary human rights organization, has documented torture and more than 150 deaths in custody in the country during the ongoing state of exception. Amnesty International has accused Salvadoran authorities of "a systematic policy of torture towards all those detained under the state of emergency on suspicion of being gang members," leading to deaths in custody, and of other prisoners dying due to inhumane conditions and denial of medical care and medicine.
Due process
The Due Process Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". In the context of removal pursuant to US immigration and nationality law, this is limited to procedural due process, as the substance of such law is generally immune to judicial review. Removal is an administrative matter, so the "provisions of the Constitution securing the right of trial by jury and prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments have no application". Procedural due process requires government officials to give a person proper notice and an opportunity to be heard before depriving that person of their life, liberty, or property.
Arrest and deportation in 2025
On March 12, 2025, after working at his job as a union apprentice, Abrego Garcia picked his son up from his grandmother's house. After leaving the house, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent stopped Abrego Garcia's car. The agent told Abrego Garcia that his immigration "status had changed", waited until his wife arrived to take custody of their son, and then arrested Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia's wife said that ICE called her after detaining her husband and told her "she had ten minutes to pick up her son before he was turned over to child protective services." Detained in Baltimore, Abrego Garcia told his wife that he was repeatedly questioned about whether he was connected to MS-13, and that agents had referenced a restaurant that his family often went to as well as a photo of him playing basketball. In the following days, ICE transferred Abrego Garcia to a detention facility in Louisiana and then to one in Texas.
Abrego Garcia called Vasquez Sura on March 15 from Texas, telling his wife that he was being deported to CECOT.
On March 15, the Trump administration sent three planes with Salvadoran and Venezuelan deportees, including Abrego Garcia, to CECOT in El Salvador, alleging that they were members of criminal organizations. A Bloomberg investigation found that approximately 90% of the Venezuelans had no US criminal record other than traffic or immigration violations.
Declaration Of Robert L. Cerna in Abrego Garcia v. Noem - March 31, 2025
Robert Cerna, an ICE official, stated in a sworn filing that "Abrego Garcia's protected status had not appeared on the flight manifest for the deportations" and that as a result, he was listed as an "alternate" and took another detainee's place when some were removed. Under his sworn testimony, "Cerna referred to Abrego Garcia's 'purported membership in MS-13', but he did not describe him as a confirmed gang member, gang leader, or terrorist." He had not been charged with a crime in the US.
After being transported to the Terrorism Confinement Center, Abrego Garcia's family had no contact with him.
Contesting the deportation
Abrego Garcia's wife sued the United States on March 24, 2025, with herself, Abrego Garcia, and their son as plaintiffs. Their attorneys sought court intervention to compel the US federal government to seek Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. The case was assigned to Judge Paula Xinis. The US government later acknowledged in a court filing that "[a]lthough ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error." This admission marked the first acknowledgment of a mistake related to the deportation of hundreds of people to El Salvador on March 15.
Internal Trump administration discussions
The Atlantic reported that soon after discovering the mistaken deportation, officials from the DHS, the DOJ, and the State Department (DOS) started working to find a way to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Officials "went so far as to float the idea of having the US ambassador to El Salvador make a personal appeal to the country's president for Abrego Garcia's return". However, White House officials reportedly took over the case, seeing the case as about more than Abrego Garcia and instead as "a measure of whether Donald Trump's administration can send people—citizens or not—to foreign prisons without due process".
The New York Times acquired some of the administration's initial written discussion of the case, and said that soon after the lawsuit was filed, lawyers from the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State conferred, but differed on how to respond. James Percival, a Trump appointee to the DHS, initially suggested that it should not be publicly acknowledged as a mistake. He reportedly asked whether they could tell the court that Abrego Garcia is a "leader" of MS-13, and wrote "We are working to fix it so he doesn't need to be returned to the U.S." The DHS reportedly sought to have Abrego Garcia's withholding of removal order terminated, and the DOS asked whether it would be necessary to comply with a judicial order to bring him back to the US. Erez Reuveni, a career lawyer at the DOJ, opposed these proposals, and argued that the administration should seek Abrego Garcia's immediate return, as losing the lawsuit could jeopardize "many far more important initiatives of the current administration".
The administration ostensibly sought to keep Abrego Garcia separated from the gangs at CECOT. In response to a July request from Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Reuveni provided copies of early emails and text message exchanges, which also addressed others' deportation to El Salvador on March 15. The New York Times reported that the messages "paint a startling picture of an administration determined to send the men to a foreign prison without judicial review first".
Early public statements from the Trump administration
The White House denied that the administration was trying to bring Abrego Garcia back to the US, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating "The Administration has always maintained the position that Abrego Garcia was the man we rightfully intended to deport because he is an illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member."
Court hearing and Xinis's ruling
In court on April 4, the Trump administration argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to order Abrego Garcia's return, as he was no longer in US custody. Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said that the US government was claiming "that the court is powerless to order any relief ... If that's true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it's done." He requested that if necessary, the court order the Trump administration to withhold the money it was paying El Salvador to imprison men at CECOT.
Erez Reuveni represented the Trump administration, and admitted the deportation was a mistake, saying "the facts are conceded, plaintiff Abrego Garcia should not have been removed." Reuveni was sometimes unable to answer questions from Xinis, telling her that the DOJ had failed to give him the necessary information, and when questioned about why the government was not able to return Abrego Garcia to the US, Reuveni said that he had asked the same question to government officials and had not received an answer.
At the end of the hearing, Xinis ruled that Abrego Garcia's deportation to El Salvador, without any kind of judicial documentation warranting it, was illegal, and she ordered the government to ensure his return to the US no later than 11:59 pm April 7. She described CECOT as "one of the most notoriously inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world" that "by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence", and placed Abrego Garcia with his persecutors, and said leaving Abrego Garcia in prison while the lawsuit proceeded would constitute irreparable harm.
The next day, Judge Xinis issued a 22-page opinion reaffirming her April 4 ruling. The opinion stated the deportation "shocks the conscience" and was "wholly lawless". She also said that while there were previous assertions of Abrego Garcia's membership in MS-13, the government had not presented evidence he was a member and had essentially abandoned that argument in her court. The judge noted that by publicly labeling him a member of MS-13, the government had placed Abrego Garcia at risk in the detention facility, as El Salvador "intentionally mixes rival gang members" in the facility. Xinis wrote "Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of [immigration law]."
In response to the government's argument that the court did not have jurisdiction over the matter since Abrego Garcia was no longer in the United States, the judge said: "Surely, Defendants do not mean to suggest that they have wholesale erased the substantive and procedural protections of federal immigration law in one fell swoop by dropping those individuals in CECOT without recourse." The judge referred to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's visit to CECOT where she described the prison as "one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use" in arguing that, like any other "contract facility" that the government pays for detention, the government had the power to secure and transport detainees, including Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador.
Erez Reuveni
Reuveni had been promoted to acting deputy director of the DOJ Office of Immigration Litigation on March 21. The day after the hearing, the DOJ placed Reuveni on administrative leave along with his supervisor August "Auggie" Flentje. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated DOJ attorneys are "required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States", and anyone who failed to do so "will face consequences." Bondi later added "He did not argue ... He shouldn't have taken the case. He shouldn't have argued it, if that's what he was going to do ... You have to vigorously argue on behalf of your client." Politico noted that despite Bondi's assertions, Reuveni "did argue that Xinis had no jurisdiction to consider the case". The DOJ fired Reuveni on April 15, saying that he had sabotaged the Abrego Garcia case. Another lawyer in the Office of Immigration Litigation, Joseph A. Darrow, later resigned and said that people were "shocked and despondent" over Reuveni's treatment. Two additional lawyers resigned. One, Erin Ryan, wrote in her farewell email that the response to Reuveni was "an act of intimidation against all the attorneys who work here" and "put us in an impossible position where we have to decide between keeping this job pushing a partisan agenda, or maintaining our ethical obligation to the court and thus our bar license."
On June 24, Reuveni filed a whistleblower report alleging that just before he was put on administrative leave, he was ordered to file a brief claiming that Abrego Garcia was a terrorist, which he refused because he believed it to be "contrary to law, frivolous, and untrue".
Initial appeal to the Fourth Circuit
Abrego Garcia v. Noem
On April 5, the Department of Justice appealed Xinis's order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, where it was assigned to a panel consisting of judges Stephanie Thacker, Harvie Wilkinson III, and Robert King. On April 7, the panel unanimously denied the appeal. The appellate court stated that "[The Government] has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process ... The Government's contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable."
Emergency appeal to the United States Supreme Court
Noem v. Abrego Garcia
On April 7, the Trump administration appealed the Fourth Circuit's ruling via the Supreme Court's emergency docket. The same day, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily stayed Xinis's order, allowing the administration to leave Abrego Garcia in CECOT pending further review from the entire Supreme Court. In his Supreme Court filing after the stay was issued, Abrego Garcia's lawyer argued for his release, and said "he sits in a foreign prison solely at the behest of the United States, as the product of a Kafka-esque mistake."
Noem v. Abrego Garcia
On April 10, the Supreme Court released a unanimous unsigned order. In reciting the facts of the case the court stated: "The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal." It ruled that the District Court "properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador."
Justice Sotomayor wrote a concurring statement joined by justices Kagan and Jackson, writing in part:
The Government now requests an order from this Court permitting it to leave Abrego Garcia, a husband and father without a criminal record, in a Salvadoran prison for no reason recognized by the law. The only argument the Government offers in support of its request, that United States courts cannot grant relief once a deportee crosses the border, is plainly wrong. The Government's argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene. That view refutes itself.
The Supreme Court did not rule that the federal government must bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States immediately. Judge Xinis had ordered the government to "facilitate and effectuate" his return, and the Supreme Court said the order to "facilitate" his return was proper, but "effectuate" was unclear and possibly beyond her authority. The court remanded the case to the district court, telling Xinis to clarify the issue "with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs", while the government "should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps".
Both sides claimed victory, with one of Abrego Garcia's lawyers stating "The rule of law won today. Time to bring him home," while a Justice Department spokesman said the decision recognized the "exclusive prerogative of the president to conduct foreign affairs", and it "illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the president's authority to conduct foreign policy."
Order to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return
Judge Xinis quickly amended her earlier order that the Trump administration "facilitate and effectuate" Abrego Garcia's return, telling the Trump administration instead to "take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible" and to update her on the morning of April 11, providing information about the steps that the government had taken, where Abrego Garcia is currently located, and what additional steps it plans to take; she also scheduled a hearing for that afternoon.
The government requested that she extend the deadline for submitting the update until the following week and postpone the status hearing, and Xinis quickly ordered that she would only give them an extra two hours for the update. The government's subsequent filing only said that it was "impractical" to update her at that time.During the status hearing, Xinis asked Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, where Abrego Garcia was currently located, what the government had done so far to facilitate his return, and what its plans were, and he responded that he did not know.
The hearing ended with Xinis ordering the Trump administration to provide "daily updates" answering her previous questions, from an official with "personal knowledge" of the situation.
Government updates and claims
In the administration's April 12 update, State Department official Michael Kozak cited "official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador" stating that Abrego Garcia is alive and "currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador ... He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador." However, in a memo detailing the transfer, El Salvador implied the United States retained decision-making power. El Salvador later said that the Trump administration maintains control of the men sent to CECOT. The Trump administration's April 12 update did not provide information on past and future steps to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return.
The Trump administration, via ICE official Evan Katz, told the court on April 13 that it had "no updates" for Xinis. While Katz acknowledged that Abrego Garcia "should not have been removed to El Salvador", Katz also wrote that Abrego Garcia "is no longer eligible for withholding of removal [to El Salvador] because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization". Xinis had previously ruled that there was no evidence that Abrego Garcia was part of a gang.
Separately, the Trump administration told the district court on April 13 that it interpreted the order to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return only as an order to "remove any domestic obstacles" in the US to Abrego Garcia's return, so there was no requirement to more actively seek Abrego Garcia's release. The Trump administration further declared that the federal judiciary had "no authority to direct" the Trump administration "to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner".
The Trump administration objected to providing more information about efforts to return Abrego Garcia, stating that "discovery could interfere with ongoing diplomatic discussions" with El Salvador. As for information on the Trump administration's deal with El Salvador to imprison deported immigrants, the administration argued against revealing that information due to it being classified, potentially a state secret, or under attorney-client privilege.
In the April 14 update, DHS lawyer Joseph Mazzara told the court that his department "does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation." In the April 15 update, Mazzara relayed that the Department of Homeland Security is "prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia's presence in the United States ... if he presents at a port of entry", and appended a transcript of an April 14 White House meeting between Trump and Bukele. The next day, Mazzara stated that there were "no further updates" regarding the situation.
Expedited discovery order
After the Trump administration's continued inaction in facilitating Abrego Garcia's release and return to the United States, on April 15, Xinis approved a request from Abrego Garcia's lawyers for expedited discovery, ordering the government to turn over specific kinds of documents requested by the lawyers that are related to Abrego Garcia's deportation and their efforts to return him, and requiring written responses to a related set of 15 questions posed by the lawyers, known as interrogatories. She also ordered several government officials who had filed declarations to sit for depositions, including Joseph Mazzara, the Department of Homeland Security's acting general counsel, and Robert Cerna, the acting field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said that she would review this evidence in assessing whether the government should be held in contempt of court, which Abrego Garcia's lawyers had requested.
Appeal of the expedited discovery order
On April 16, the Trump administration returned to the Fourth Circuit, asking the court to stay Xinis's order for expedited discovery, calling it a "fishing expedition". The next day, judges King, Thacker, and Wilkinson unanimously denied the appeal. In a seven-page ruling, Judge Wilkinson said that Trump was evidently seeking the "weakening the courts" through his "constant intimations of its [the courts'] illegitimacy", and he warned that Trump was also harming himself by creating "a public perception of its [the presidency's] lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions". AP News described the order as an "extraordinary condemnation". The court called the government's request "both extraordinary and premature" and went on to say:
The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.
The appeals court rejected the government's argument that all it must do to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return is to remove domestic obstacles, ruling Trump officials are not allowed "to do essentially nothing." Judge Wilkinson stated that Abrego Garcia is entitled to due process regardless of whether he is a member of MS-13, and if the government is confident about its allegation that he is, it can initiate immigration court "proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order" once he is back in the US.
Expedited discovery production
Xinis had ordered the government to produce the requested documents and respond to the interrogatories by April 21, and the next day, Abrego Garcia's lawyers said that the government had produced "nothing of substance" and asked for hearing. The New York Times described the government's responses as part of "a pattern of stonewalling" in which it was coming "ever closer to an open showdown with the judicial branch in a way that could threaten the constitutional balance of power". Despite courts having ordered the federal authorities to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, DOJ lawyers said that the discovery requests were "based on the false premise that the United States can or has been ordered to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador". Xinis responded with another order, stating that the government was engaged in "a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations" and had "sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege". She gave the government an additional day to respond to the discovery demands, and said that any assertions of privilege must be accompanied by "specific legal and factual showings".
On April 23, both the government and Abrego Garcia's lawyers filed motions under seal, and with both parties' agreement, Xinis paused the discovery deadline until April 30. When the government asked her to stay her discovery order a second time, she denied the request and set new deadlines for early May. On May 7, Xinis revealed the administration had invoked the state secrets privilege in the case, and set a hearing on the issue for May 16. The following week, Abrego Garcia's lawyers indicated that there had been "sealed ex parte communications" in which the government had "apparently suggested to this Court ... that it was working to secure Abrego Garcia's return". Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's lawyers, told the HuffPost that the government had been "saying one thing in court filings and another thing in the media."
On May 16, Xinis held two hearings, one public and the other closed. She questioned the DOJ lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, about the government's invocation of the state secrets privilege, telling him that it was insufficient for the government to essentially tell her "Take my word for it". Abrego Garcia's lawyers said that the government had been largely non-responsive to their discovery requests, supplying 132 photocopies of court filings and the discovery requests themselves, 16 of the remaining 32 supplied relating to Van Hollen's visit, and 1,140 withheld as privileged. After the hearing, Xinis ordered that a sealed statement from Secretary of State Rubio be unsealed, and granted a request from Abrego Garcia's lawyers to depose three more administration officials. Rubio had said that "Compelled disclosure of any sensitive communications or discussions with the Government of El Salvador regarding Abrego Garcia's removal and confinement in CECOT and Centro Industrial threatens significant harm to the United States' foreign affairs and national security interests", and that the same was true for the steps the government "has or has not taken" to secure Abrego Garcia's release.
A group of more than 20 press organizations requested that Xinis unseal documents that were under seal, including documents related to the government's request that Xinis stay discovery at the end of April. On June 4, she ruled that several of the documents would be unsealed, though portions would be redacted.The administration had opposed the request on the basis of national security and the potential to negatively impact negotiations with the Salvadoran government, but the unsealed documents contained little information that was not already public.
Abrego Garcia's return
The government brought Abrego Garcia back to the US on June 6 to face new criminal charges in Tennessee, and the DOJ then asked Xinis to pause the proceedings in her court in anticipation of their filing a motion to dismiss the case entirely. Abrego Garcia's lawyers opposed this, arguing that the government had engaged in "blatant, willful and persistent violations of court orders" and should be held to account for them, and that Xinis still had jurisdiction to find the government in contempt. On June 11, Abrego Garcia's lawyers filed a motion alleging that the government had not only ignored court orders, but had "willfully sought to impede the discovery process", and they asked Xinis to impose sanctions. Five days later, the government filed its motion to dismiss the case, arguing that because Abrego Garcia was now back in the US, the case was moot. His lawyers opposed dismissal, and in early July, Xinis denied the government's motion to dismiss the case.
On July 2, his lawyers asked for permission to file an amended complaint. In their motion, they stated that during his time in El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was subject to "severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture". The motion also said that the prison staff at CECOT had separated prisoners who had gang member tattoos from those who did not, and placed him in the group of prisoners without gang tattoos.
Judge Xinis ruled on July 23 that when Abrego Garcia is released from pretrial detention in his criminal case in Tennessee, the government cannot immediately take him into immigration custody, and that if the government plans to deport him to a third country, he must be given 72 hours notice, so that he will not be at risk of "re-deportation without due process". The same day, Judge Crenshaw in Tennessee rejected the government's request that he revoke his ruling that Abrego Garcia be released pending trial.
Trump–Bukele White House meeting
During an April 14 meeting between presidents Trump and Nayib Bukele, Bukele told reporters it was "absurd" to ask if he would return Abrego Garcia. Bukele said:
Are you suggesting I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? How can I return him to the United States, like I smuggle him into the United States? Of course, I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the western hemisphere, and you want us to go back into releasing criminals, so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? That's not going to happen.
During the meeting, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said that it was up to El Salvador, not the American government, whether Abrego Garcia would be released. Trump added that the reporters would "love to have a criminal released into our country. These are sick people". PolitiFact identified several misleading statements made by administration officials and Bukele during the meeting. Poynter Institute found the following statements to be misleading:
Marco Rubio said that Abrego Garcia was "illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That's where you deport people back to their country of origin", failing to recognize that Abrego Garcia had been legally working in the United States since 2019 under the withholding of removal granted in 2019.
Pam Bondi said "In 2019, two courts, an immigration court and an appellate immigration court, ruled that [Abrego Garcia] was a member of MS-13"; however, "The immigration judges' decision to deny bond is not equivalent to ruling that Abrego Garcia was a gang member".
Poynter Institute and the libertarian magazine Reason both found the following statements by Stephen Miller to be misleading:
"We won (the Supreme Court) case 9–0 and people like CNN are portraying it as a loss", and "The Supreme Court said the district court order was unlawful and its main components were reversed 9–0 unanimously". This is misleading because the Supreme Court found that the government had failed to follow the law and the orders of the court.
National Review commentator Andrew McCarthy said that Pam Bondi's statement that two courts ruled that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 was "deeply misleading" and that "[it] also departs from the Justice Department's tradition of providing a complete version of facts – even facts that cut against the government's position – because it's the right thing to do and promotes DOJ's credibility with the judiciary and the public."
Trump again raised the issue of deporting and jailing American citizens, telling Bukele, "Homegrown are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough."
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