Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old Salvadoran national and father who has lived in the United States for many years.
He fled El Salvador as a teenager to escape gang violence and extortion, and in 2019 (while Trump was president) an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation due to a credible fear that he would face persecution if returned to El Salvador. This form of relief (a withholding of removal order) allowed Garcia to remain in the U.S. legally.
He settled with his family in Maryland, obtained a work permit, and found employment as a sheet metal apprentice. Garcia’s wife and young children are U.S. citizens.
By all accounts Garcia has no criminal record, a fact the government has not disputed in court.
In short, prior to 2025 Garcia was a law-abiding Maryland resident living under the protection of a U.S. court order that barred his removal to El Salvador.
On March 12, 2025, Garcia’s normal life was upended. He was pulled over and arrested by ICE agents while driving home with his five-year-old son in the car.
ICE placed Garcia in custody despite the standing 2019 court order that prohibited his deportation to El Salvador. Only three days later, on March 15, Garcia was forcibly put on a deportation flight to El Salvador.
That day, the Trump administration was carrying out a controversial crackdown on alleged gang members. It had invoked a 1798 wartime law (the Alien Enemies Act) to send several planeloads of deportees to El Salvador’s custody.
Garcia – who was not a fugitive or new removal case – was mistakenly added as an “alternate” passenger on one of these flights at the last minute, even though officials knew a judge had forbidden his removal.
Upon arrival, Salvadoran authorities imprisoned him in the notorious CECOT supermax prison, a facility known for housing gang members under harsh conditions.
Garcia’s sudden deportation was a direct violation of the 2019 court order protecting him.
U.S. officials would soon acknowledge that his removal was a grave error.
In a court filing the following week, an ICE official, Robert Cerna, admitted that Garcia had been deported “through administrative error” – calling the unlawful removal “an oversight”.
According to Cerna, ICE agents saw that Garcia had an old final removal on record and incorrectly believed he was an MS-13 gang member, and they erroneously put him on the plane as part of the anti-gang operation.
Garcia had no gang charges or convictions, and he had faithfully attended all his routine ICE check-ins (the most recent in January 2025) while living quietly with his family.
His wrongful deportation – essentially a bureaucratic mistake – left him trapped in a Salvadoran prison among violent criminals.
Garcia’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. authorities, seeking to overturn his unlawful deportation and secure his return to America.
His case was heard in the U.S. District Court in Maryland on Friday, April 4 before Judge Paula Xinis.
In these court proceedings, the government itself acknowledged the mistake that had been made.
Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni, representing the government, openly conceded that Garcia’s removal should never have happened. “The facts are conceded – Plaintiff Abrego Garcia should not have been removed,” Reuveni admitted during the hearing.
The government lawyers agreed there was no legal basis for his deportation, aligning with Garcia’s position that his March 15 removal violated the law.
Garcia’s legal team argued vigorously that the deportation was not only wrongful but unconstitutional. The government had flouted a standing judicial order (the 2019 withholding of removal) by deporting him.
They further contended that the administration did, in fact, have the power to retrieve Garcia from El Salvador, given the close cooperation between U.S. and Salvadoran authorities in this anti-gang deportation program.
“This is not something that’s outside of the government’s power,” Garcia’s lawyer argued, noting that evidence showed El Salvador was detaining Garcia effectively “at the discretion of the United States.”
The degree of involvement and cooperation between the administration and the CECOT prison was demonstrated in late March when a member of the president’s cabinet – Secretary of Homeland Security Noem – toured the prison and recorded a video statement with the prisoners assembed behind her as part of official government messaging.
Garcia’s lawyers again underscored that he has no criminal record or proven gang ties – a point the government did not contest.
Back in 2019 an immigration judge had reviewed the allegations and found no credible evidence that Garcia was an MS-13 member, and that there were no indictments or criminal proof against him.
Judge Xinis pressed DOJ attorney Reuveni for an explanation of how Garcia was picked up and removed in the first place. “There is no warrant for his arrest. There is no statement of probable cause,” Judge Xinis pointedly noted, asking, “What is the actual document that got this process started?”
ICE had never obtained the normal legal paperwork (like an arrest warrant or new removal order) before seizing Garcia. Reuveni had no satisfying answer. He responded frankly, “I do not have that order. It is not in the record.”
Reuveni expressed frustration at his own agencies’ failures, telling the court he was “frustrated” by the lack of information and cooperation he received when trying to determine why Garcia was taken into custody.
Judge Xinis also inquired why the government claimed it couldn’t simply bring Garcia back. Reuveni revealed he had asked the same question of U.S. officials and got no answer.
On April 4, Judge Xinis ordered the U.S. government to promptly arrange for Garcia’s return to the United States, mandating that the administration must “take steps to bring him back” by Monday, April 7, 2025.
Judge Xinis was not swayed by the administration’s claims that U.S. courts lacked authority once a person was outside U.S. borders. The U.S.-El Salvador arrangements for these deportation flights gave her confidence that Garcia could be returned if the U.S. government made the effort.
The judge concluded that the error needed to be rectified immediately to restore Garcia’s rights – the United States had unlawfully expelled Garcia, so the United States must bring him back. The court’s message was that no bureaucratic mistake can be allowed to strip a person of his legal protections – and that the judiciary can enforce those protections, even if it means requiring the government to fly a deported person home.
The judge ruled that even amid heated immigration crackdowns, the Constitution and prior court orders remain supreme, and those wrongly deported retain the right to be brought back home.
Instead of complying with the order to correct their mistake and bring Garcia home, the Justice Department filed an emergency appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to block the order.
The White House also responded defiantly. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt quipped that the judge should “contact President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador” about the situation.
Yesterday, DOJ attorney Reuveni – who had conceded the deportation was wrongful – was abruptly placed on indefinite administrative leave.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” adding that “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”
This admonishment was widely interpreted as punishing Reuveni for telling the court the truth about the government’s errors. The unusual discipline of a DOJ lawyer in the middle of a high-profile case sent a chilling message within the department.
The coming days will reveal whether the administration will comply with the court’s mandate or if a higher court will intervene.