Posted on 04/04/25
| News Source: Pikesville Patch
Baltimore, MD - April 4, 2025 - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to return a Maryland man to the United States after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month due to an "administrative error," according to an Associated Press report.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a resident of Beltsville and a citizen of El Salvador, was among hundreds of alleged gang members expelled from the United States on March 15 after President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations.
Despite his deportation, Abrego Garcia had been granted a withholding of removal in 2019, meaning he could not be removed from the United States.
Before she issued her ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis described Abrego Garcia's deportation as “an illegal act” and pressed a Justice Department attorney for answers, leading to a tense courtroom exchange.
Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni conceded to Xinis that Abrego Garcia should not have been removed from the U.S. and shouldn’t have been sent to El Salvador. He couldn’t tell the judge what authority Abrego Garcia was arrested upon in Maryland.
“I’m also frustrated that I have no answers for you for a lot of these questions,” he told the judge.
Xinis also questioned why Abrego Garcia was sent to the prison in El Salvador, which observers say is rife with human rights abuses.
“Why is he there, of all places?” the judge asked.
“I don’t know,” Reuveni replied. “That information has not been given to me.”
The judge also questioned why the U.S. couldn’t get him back. Reuveni said that was the first question he asked when he was assigned to the case.
“I have not received today an answer that I find satisfactory,” he added.
Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura, and his 5-year-old child, both of whom are U.S. citizens, filed a lawsuit on March 24 calling for his return.
According to the lawsuit, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador when he was 16 years old to escape gang violence. He was arrested in March 2019 while soliciting work outside a Home Depot, and he was later ordered deported after a confidential informant told police he was a member of the MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia appealed the claim and was eventually granted “withholding from removal” status in October 2019 by an immigration judge, according to court documents.
On March 12, Abrego Garcia was pulled over by ICE officers after picking up his son from daycare. The officer told Abrego Garcia that his "status had changed" before placing him in handcuffs and detaining him, according to court documents. The officer also said Abrego Garcia's wife had 10 minutes to get their son or else he would be handed over to Child Protective Services, the lawsuit states.
Three days later, Abrego Garcia was taken to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, according to court documents, which activists say is rife with abuses and where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside.
In a sworn statement filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland, Robert Cerna, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations, called Abrego Garcia's removal "an error."
"Through administrative error, Abrego Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador," Cerna wrote. "This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13."
In a court filing released earlier this week, Trump administration officials waved off calls to return Abrego Garcia to the country, claiming that U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction to order it. Vice President JD Vance also defended the deportation, calling Abrego Garcia a "convicted MS-13 gang member."
A Maryland court record search by Patch did not find any criminal cases linked to Abrego Garcia’s name.
"Abrego Garcia is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang," his attorneys wrote in his family's lawsuit. "Although he has been accused of general 'gang affiliation,' the U.S. government has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation."
Friday's ruling came shortly after Abrego Garcia's wife joined dozens of supporters at a rally to urge her husband's immediate return.
Vasquez Sura hasn't spoken to Abrego Garcia since he was flown to El Salvador and imprisoned. She urged her supporters to keep fighting for her husband “and all the Kilmars out there whose stories are still waiting to be heard.”
“To all the wives, mothers, children who also face this cruel separation, I stand with you in this bond of pain,” she said during the rally at a community center in Hyattsville. “It’s a journey that no one ever should ever have to suffer, a nightmare that feels endless."