GREENBERT, Maryland – A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ordered the Trump administration to return its people from El Salvador by April 7th.

Judge Paula Sinnis, a ruling from the Maryland U.S. District Court, set up a fight against the Trump administration. Authorities admitted that the deportation of Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia of Bertlesville, Maryland was a mistake, but they were in their actions.

This case also means that in another case removed under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, more than 250 Venezuelan men could be returned to the United States without legitimate procedures.

Dozens of protesters were waiting for a decision, and after the order, cheers could be heard outside the courthouse.

A few hours later, the Ministry of Justice This decision was appealed. To the US Court of Appeals in the 4th Circuit.

“That was unconstitutional.”

Sinis, appointed by former President Barack Obama, said “there is no evidence to hold.”

“That means that from the moment he was seized, it was unconstitutional,” Xinis said.

Erez Roubeni, a lawyer representing the Justice Department, said the Trump administration has not challenged the merits of the case, and the only argument it has is that Abrego Garcia is under El Salvador’s control, and Maryland courts lack jurisdiction.

Sinis pushed the reason Abrego Garcia was taken to prison.

Reuveni said he had no idea and had no information given to him by the US Department of Homeland Security.

She asked why Abrego Garcia could not be returned to the United States.

Reuveni said he asked the staff the same question and had not received a “satisfactory” answer.

Reuveni once asked the court that Sinis should try to correct the situation 24 hours a day for President Donald Trump to take over the situation.

The US pays $6 million

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are not only asking him to be returned, but also asking the Trump administration to stop paying for mega prisons for his custody. The White House says it is paying $6 million to the Salvador government to detain about 300 men.

Roubeni said that Abrego Garcia is in custody in El Salvador and he is no longer in US custody and cannot be retrieved.

Sinis pushed back that debate, noting that the US and El Salvador have contracts to detain men in prison.

Roubeni said that it is not a contract that the US and El Salvador have.

Simon Y. Sandoval Moschenberg, lawyer for Abrego Garcia, argued that “there is a significant adjustment between the two governments.”

He said that Homeland Security’s Ministry of Christie Noem has close ties with President El Salvador Naive Buquere while visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Sinis told Roubeni that the US is detaining the man by paying $6 million to El Salvador.

She asked Leuveni if ​​there was evidence to show her that it was inconsistent with her knowledge.

“The government has chosen not to produce evidence here,” Roubeni said.

Wartime law was summoned

On March 15, three deportation flights remained towards El Salvador, with two planes removed under wartime law, and the third plane carrying its citizens from El Salvador, including Abrego Garcia.

The 2019 order from the immigration judge thought Abrego Garcia should be removed from the United States, but he was granted protection if he was returned to him saying that he would be “persecuted by the Salvadoran gang.” According to court documents.

The attorneys for the US immigration and customs enforcement agency could have challenged the decision, but it wasn’t. Instead, Abrego Garcia had to check in on ice every year, including at the beginning of this year.

As Abrego Garcia was driving his 5-year-old son home on March 12, he was drawn to the ice and informed that he had “changed his status” and was soon moved to a Texas detention center. Within three days he was on a plane to CECOT despite no orders except for removal to El Salvador.

Xinis asked Reuveni under the authority that Abrego Garcia was removed, but he said he didn’t know. All he was given was a declaration by Robert L. Cerna, director of Ice Acting Field Office Enforcement and Removal Operations.

“This was an oversight and the removal was done in good faith based on the final removal order and the existence of Abrego-Garcia’s MS-13 membership.” I wrote it in a court filing on Monday.

If the government cannot quote what legal authority he had removed, “There is no basis for seizing him in the first place.

The ICE and the Justice Department have admitted that elimination is “administrative error,” but the Trump administration is based on that decision.

The White House is involved

Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media without evidence that Abrego Garcia was a convicted member of MS-13 gang and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt this week, and repeated Vance this week.

“The administration maintains its position that this individual, deported to El Salvador and not returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,” Leavitt said.

For these comments by Leavitt, Sandoval-Moshenberg asked the judge to “hold the government into tight strings.”

Abrego Garcia has no criminal history in the United States, El Salvador or anywhere else, Sandoval Morshenberg said.

According to court records, Abrego Garcia came to the United States in 2011 without legal approval and fled the violence in his native El Salvador. Six years later, he was taken into custody at Prince George’s County Police Department while searching for work at Home Depot in Hyattville, Maryland.

While there he was questioned about his gang affiliation, and law enforcement did not believe he was not a member of the MS-13 gang, according to court records.

The evidence officers submitted included Abrego Garcia, wearing a Chicago bull hat, hoodie and a statement from a confidential informant, who said he was a member of MS-13, according to court documents.

He was never accused of gangs or convicted of his existence, but he was kept in ice custody while he proceeded with the lawsuit before an immigration judge.

Last updated at 4:44pm, April 4, 2025