A member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus takes a photo of Kilmar Abrego Garcia during a press conference to discuss the arrest and expulsion of Abrego Garcia on April 9, 2025 in Washington, DC
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Images Alex Wong / Getty
Greenbelt, Md. – A federal judge from Maryland wants the federal government to do everything he can to “facilitate” the return of a Maryland man who mistakenly expelled to El Salvador.
Only a few hours after the Supreme Court has largely confirmed its initial order to bring Kilmar Abrego Gracia to the United States, Federal Judge Paula Xinis issued a new one, ordering the federal government to “take all the measures available to facilitate the return” of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible. And it ordered the Ministry of Justice to provide an immediate update on its location and status, what measures that the government has taken so far to bring it back and what additional measures it is considering.
In response, the Trump administration requires more time to answer questions from the judge. On Friday, in a legal file, lawyers of the Ministry of Justice argued that the government needed “a significant opportunity to examine the decision of the Supreme Court before it is conferred to report the measures it will take in response to this decision.”
“Foreign affairs cannot operate on legal deadlines, in part because it involves sensitive considerations specific to the inappropriate country for judicial control,” wrote lawyers in another file.
Judge Xinis had rejected the Ministry of Justice’s request to delay a state conference scheduled for Friday afternoon.
The affair of Abrego Garcia has become a confrontation with high issues between the White House and the courts, and the last case to test the speed with which the Trump administration can remove people who, according to him, threaten the security of the Americans. His case is unique in that the administration admitted that his expulsion was an error, but says that he cannot be brought back.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the release of Abrego Garcia de la Garde in Salvador, and to “be ready to share what it can concern the measures it has taken and the prospect of new measures”. The unsigned order has marked a rare victory for those who dispute the deportation orders of the administration.
There was no dissent, although judge Sonia Sotomayor in a statement accompanying the order wrote that “to date, the government has not mentioned any basis in law for the arrest without mandate of Abrego Garcia, its referral to El Salvador, or its other liberal judgments in a salvadorant prison.”
The Supreme Court referred the case to Xinis with instructions to clarify the wording of its original order – in particular, its use of the word “carried out” in its instructions to the Trump administration.
The order of Xinis – which is now based solely on the word “facilitating” – seems intended to answer the question of the Supreme Court.
The judges also wrote that the planned scope of this term is “clear” and that it could go beyond the authority of the lower court. They asked the lower court to “clarify its directive, with respect due to the deference of the executive power in the conduct of foreign affairs”.
The Ministry of Internal Security underlined this section of order in its response.
“Scotus agreed with us that the district court has poorly interfered with the power of the president’s foreign affairs,” said Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of public affairs, in a statement sent by email. “The district court was authoritarian and, like SCOTUS, should clarify its directive with respect duly the deference of executive power in the conduct of foreign affairs. We are impatient to continue to advance our position in this case.”
Argue to bring him back
The Trump administration admitted that Greo Garcia had been expelled because of what he calls an “administrative error”, but argued that there is nothing that he can do because Grego Garcia was already out of the United States under the custody of the Salvadoran government when the error was discovered.
Xinis, the judge of Maryland, had previously rejected this argument.
Abrego Garcia has lived in Maryland for more than a decade, as well as his wife and their three children, all American citizens. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him a form of protected status which should have prevented his expulsion to El Salvador.
Despite this, ice agents arrested Abrego Garcia last month. He was expelled in Salvador a few days later, as well as hundreds of other men than the Trump administration accuses of being gang members.
The White House argues that Greo Garcia is a member of the Salvadoran gang, MS-13, whom the Trump administration has appointed as a foreign terrorist organization, and should not be authorized in the United States
But ABREGO GARCIA’s lawyers dispute this. They say he has lived peacefully in Maryland for 14 years and has never been accused or found guilty of a crime in any country. ABREGO GARCIA’s lawyers argue that MS-13 allegations are largely based on an accusation of a confidential informant who accused him of being a gang in New York, where Abrego Garcia has never lived.
Xinis described the accusations as “waves” and “not corroborated” and noted that the Trump administration had not introduced any evidence of an indictment or a complaint in the file.
More calls in the case are likely.
However, the Trump administration seemed little willing to retreat. In an article on social networks Thursday evening, the deputy chief of staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, framed the ordinance of the Supreme Court as a rejection of the reasoning of the lower court.
The judges “clearly indicated that a judge of the district court could not exercise the powers of the foreign affairs of article II,” wrote Miller. He argued that El Salvador has “the illegal foreign terrorist” in detention, not the American government – leaving exactly exactly when, or if Abrego Garcia would return to Maryland.
