Federal judge calls deportation of Salvadoran man in Maryland 'wholly lawless'
Trump DOJ appeals to Supreme Court to stop order to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the US from El Salvador
By Pilar Arias Fox News
Published April 7, 2025 7:56am EDT | Updated April 7, 2025 12:02pm EDT
A federal judge's 22-page decision on Sunday called the deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador "wholly lawless."
And after an appeals court on Monday denied a motion from the Department of Justice to stay the judge's order to return Garcia to the U.S., the Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to an El Salvadoran megaprison last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., where he was living in Maryland.
"Although the legal basis for the mass removal of hundreds of individuals to El Salvador remains disturbingly unclear, Abrego Garcia’s case is categorically different—there were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal," Xinis wrote.
"Nor does any evidence suggest that Abrego Garcia is being held in CECOT at the behest of Salvadoran authorities to answer for crimes in that country. Rather, his detention appears wholly lawless," she continued.
Also on Sunday, Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled down on the Trump administration's decision to deport Abrego Garcia.
"We have to rely on what ICE says," Bondi said in a "Fox News Sunday" interview. "We have to rely on what Homeland Security says. They're our clients, and I firmly believe in the work they are doing, and we're going to make America safe again. That was President Trump's directive to all of us."
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