Trump officials must report efforts, if any, to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, judge rules
A federal judge on Wednesday again directed the Trump administration to provide information about its efforts so far, if any, to comply with her order to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland temporarily halted her directive for information at the administration’s request last week. But with the seven-day pause expiring at 5 p.m., she set May deadlines for officials to provide sworn testimony on anything they have done to return him to the U.S.
Abrego Garcia, 29, has been imprisoned in his native El Salvador for nearly seven weeks, while his mistaken deportation has become a flash point for President Donald Trump's immigration policies and his increasing friction with the U.S. courts.
The president acknowledged to ABC News on Tuesday that he could call El Salvador's president and have Abrego Garcia sent back. But Trump doubled down on his claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump told ABC's Terry Moran in the Oval Office.
In two interviews in the past week, Trump has indicated that the administration has proactively decided not to get Abrego García returned. In the ABC interview, he even agreed that he could if he wanted to.
“You could get him back,” ABC’s Terry Moran posited. “There’s a phone on this desk.”
To which Trump responded: “I could.”
Moran submitted that Trump has huge power as president of the United States to “call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back, right now.’”
Trump didn’t dispute this, but he said others have made the call not to push harder.
“I’m not the one making this decision,” Trump said. “We have lawyers that don’t want to do this.”
That comment echoed one Trump made in an interview with Time magazine last week. In that interview, he said he had not even asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to return Abrego García. He even said he personally would be okay with getting Abrego García returned, but he again cited the resistance of others in the administration.
“Frankly, bringing him back and retrying him wouldn’t bother me,” Trump said. “But I leave that up to my lawyer.”
He added: “At this moment, they just don’t want to do that.”
Police in Maryland had identified Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 gang member in 2019 based off his tattoos, Chicago Bulls hoodie and the word of a criminal informant. But Abrego Garcia was never charged. His attorneys say the informant claimed Abrego Garcia was in an MS-13 chapter in New York, where he's never lived.
The gang identification by local police prompted the Trump administration to expel Abrego Garcia in March to an infamous El Salvador prison. But the deportation violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that protected him from being sent to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia had demonstrated to the immigration court that he likely faced persecution by local Salvadoran gangs that terrorized him and his family, court records state. He fled to the U.S. at 16 and lived in Maryland for about 14 years, working construction, getting married and raising three kids.
Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return him nearly a month ago, on April 4. The Supreme Court ruled April 10 that the administration must work to bring him back.
But the case only became more heated. Xinis lambasted a government lawyer who couldn’t explain what, if anything, the Trump administration has done. She then ordered officials to provide sworn testimony and other information to document their efforts.
The Trump administration appealed. But a federal appeals court backed Xinis’ order for information in a blistering ruling, saying, “we shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision.”
The Trump administration resisted, saying the information Xinis sought involved protected state secrets and government deliberations. She in turn scolded government lawyers for ignoring her orders and acting in “bad faith.”
The judge has directed U.S. attorneys to provide specific justifications for their claims of privileged information. But her order could face continued resistance.
When a reporter asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday whether he has had any conversations with El Salvador about returning Abrego Garcia, Rubio said foreign policy should not be discussed with judges.
“Well, I’ll never tell you that. And you know who else I’ll never tell? A judge,” Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting. “Because the conduct of all foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge.”
Meanwhile, attorneys for Abrego Garcia said Wednesday that the administration was moving toward bringing him back when it asked for a pause in the court case.
“We agreed to that request because we understood it to be made in good faith,” the firm, Murray Osorio PLLC, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, one week later, it remains unclear what, if anything, the government has done in the past seven days to bring our client home to his family.”
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• Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed. The Washington Post contributed.