Judge Orders Testimony, Warns Feds In Case Involving Mistakenly Deported MD Man

GREENBELT, MD — A federal judge on Tuesday chided the Trump administration on its continued refusal to return a Maryland man to the United States, warning federal lawyers against further “gamesmanship” after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.

The hearing in a U.S. District Court comes a day after White House advisers repeated the claim that they lack the authority to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia from his native country, where he was detained in a notorious gang prison following his March 15 deportation.

The deportation of Abrego Garcia, a Beltsville resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, has become a national flashpoint as President Donald Trump follows up on his campaign promises of mass deportations.

During Tuesday's hearing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said she would not hold any government officials in contempt for violating her order — for now — but issued a warning to Trump officials, according to a New York Post report.

“We have to give process to both sides. But we are going to move,” Xinis said. “There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding.”

She will order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia.

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Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said on social media that he is flying to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on Abrego Garcia's condition and discuss his return to the U.S.

"Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted by the Trump Admin and, by their own admission, wrongly deported to El Salvador," Van Hollen posted on X, formerly Twitter. "He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family."

Xinis also scolded the administration for doing “nothing” to arrange Abrego Garcia's return and rejected the argument that facilitating his release means only "removing domestic obstacles," the New York Times and CNN reported.

"When a wrongfully removed individual from the United States is outside the borders, it’s not so cut and dry that all you have to do is remove domestic barriers," Xinis said, according to CNN.

The administration’s understanding of “facilitate,” Xinis said, “flies in the face of the plain meaning of the word.”

Xinis said she also plans to issue a written order that “expands on my definition of the word facilitate.”

According to his attorneys, 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.

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.

Trump officials later described the mistake as “an administrative error” but insisted that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 in the United States.

Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime and has denied the allegations, which include being a member of MS-13 in Long Island, New York, where he has never lived.

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.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis previously ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to the country. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the U.S. government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release.

But the White House has balked at trying to broker his return, arguing the courts can’t intrude on the president’s diplomacy powers.

Xinis ordered the United States on Friday to provide daily status updates on plans to return Abrego Garcia. The Trump administration responded Saturday that he was alive in the El Salvador prison but has only doubled down on its decision not to tell a federal court whether it has any plans to repatriate Abrego Garcia.

During a visit to the White House on Monday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said there was no basis for the Central American nation to return Abrego Garcia and called the idea "preposterous."

"How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele, seated alongside Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States."

In a filing Tuesday afternoon, Trump administration attorneys said the U.S. government is prepared to facilitate his return to the county but added his protection from being deported to El Salvador would be removed because they alleged he's in MS-13. He would be deported back to El Salvador or to a third country, they said.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Abrego Garcia's lawyers cited Thursday's order from the Supreme Court to facilitate his return.

“To give any meaning to the Supreme Court’s order, the Government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia,” the attorneys wrote. “To date, the Government has not done so.”

The attorneys also rejected the idea that the United States lacks the authority to retrieve him. They noted that the U.S. is paying El Salvador to hold prisoners, including Abrego Garcia, and “can exercise those same contractual rights to request their release.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.