The case has become a flashpoint in the debate over executive power, immigration enforcement, and judicial authority.
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to resume reporting its efforts to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States, nearly seven weeks after he was deported to El Salvador.
In an April 30
ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland imposed new deadlines requiring the administration to submit sworn declarations detailing steps taken to comply with her earlier directive to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
The Salvadoran national, identified by U.S. authorities as an illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member, was
deported on March 15 despite a 2019 judicial order barring his removal to his home country. The Trump administration said it had made an “
administrative error“ that led to his deportation.
The order follows the expiration of a one-week pause in daily reporting that Xinis had
imposed on April 23, after previously mandating that federal officials provide daily updates on actions taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. With the pause ending at 5 p.m. on April 30, Xinis reinstated court oversight and laid out a revised schedule for discovery, including potential depositions of key officials.
Abrego Garcia’s deportation has become a flashpoint in the broader legal and political battle over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement, with critics accusing the administration of ignoring due process and defying the courts. Although Abrego Garcia was never criminally charged, police
identified him as an MS-13 member in 2019 based on tattoos, clothing, and an informant’s testimony linking him to a chapter of the gang.
In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador, citing a credible fear of persecution by rival gangs.
According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia fled gang violence in El Salvador at age 16 and entered the United States illegally, settling in Maryland, where he lived for more than a decade, working in construction, marrying, and raising three children. His wife had previously filed a civil protective order against Abrego Garcia over domestic violence but she has since publicly stated that she chose to withdraw the civil case as the couple were about to work through their issues privately.
Upon arrival in El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was initially transferred to a maximum-security prison, where he was held without a hearing.
Xinis
ordered his return on April 4, and on April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court
upheld that order, requiring the administration to “facilitate” his repatriation to the United States.
Attorney General Pam Bondi
has said that Abrego Garcia is a dangerous gang member and “is not coming back to our country,” citing Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s refusal to return him.
In an April 15 status
update, DHS said it lacked authority to “forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”
The Department of Homeland Security also suggested in court filings that if returned, Abrego Garcia would be detained and deported again—either to a third country or back to El Salvador after the U.S. government stripped his protected status.
The department
said in a statement on April 18 that Abrego Garcia is also subject to an investigation related to a traffic stop that led law enforcement officers to suspect his involvement in potential human trafficking.
A report from the department said that in 2022, Abrego Garcia was stopped for speeding in Tennessee while transporting eight people in a vehicle on an expired MD “Limited Term Temporary” driver’s license. While being questioned, Abrego Garcia pretended to speak broken English and said that the vehicle belonged to his boss and that he was transporting the passengers for work on a construction site.
The DHS
report noted there was no luggage in the vehicle for their three-day journey from Texas to Maryland, leading officers to suspect human trafficking. The vehicle was known to law enforcement for making trips to the southern border to pick up non-citizens. The passengers all gave officers Abrego Garcia’s address as their home address. Abrego Garcia was only given a warning citation by local law enforcement for driving without a valid license.
Speaking to ABC News on Tuesday, President Donald Trump acknowledged that he could personally request Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador’s president. He declined to do so, saying that Abrego Garcia is a dangerous gang member.
MS-13, a transnational criminal organization, was recently designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist group, along with several other gangs.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley
said that Trump’s admission in the interview can now be used in court.
“The judge can now use that admission as proof of a violation of the order to facilitate his return,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
Supporters of Abrego Garcia, including several Democratic politicians, continue to press for his release. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to El Salvador in mid-April and
met with Abrego Garcia under the supervision of Salvadoran officials.
According to the Trump administration’s most recent publicly available
status report, dated April 21, Salvadoran authorities confirmed that Abrego Garcia is no longer at the maximum-security prison and is being held at the Centro Industrial penitentiary in Santa Ana and is “in good conditions and in an excellent state of health.”
