Judge says deportation of Maryland man to an El Salvador prison was 'wholly lawless'

Federal judge orders Trump administration to bring Maryland man back from El Salvador, deeming his arrest and deportation unlawful.

The U.S. government's decision to arrest a Maryland man and send him to a notorious prison in El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless,” a federal judge wrote Sunday (April 6, 2025) in a legal opinion explaining why she had ordered the Trump administration to bring him back to the United States.

There is little to no evidence to support a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote. And in any case, she said, an immigration judge had expressly barred the U.S. in 2019 from deporting Mr. Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he faced likely persecution by local gangs.

"As defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador — let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere," Ms. Xinis wrote.

She said it was “eye-popping" that the government had argued that it could not be forced to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back because he is no longer in U.S. custody.

“They do indeed cling to the stunning proposition that they can forcibly remove any person — migrant and U.S. citizen alike —to prisons outside the United States, and then baldly assert they have no way to effectuate return because they are no longer the custodian,' and the Court thus lacks jurisdiction,” Xinis wrote. “As a practical matter, the facts say otherwise.”

The Justice Department has asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to pause Ms. Xinis' ruling.

Mr. Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who has never been charged or convicted of any crime, was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.