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The Trump administration has filed an appeal arguing that a federal judge lacked the authority to order the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, a country where he faces a high risk of persecution, The Associated Press reported on Saturday. In a Saturday filing, government attorneys reportedly requested that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals suspend U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’s ruling, which had directed the administration to facilitate Garcia’s return by late Monday.
Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national, was deported last month, despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that he should be shielded from deportation to El Salvador due to the threat of violent gangs. The White House has described his deportation as an “administrative error,” but the incident has sparked outrage, particularly since Garcia had been granted legal permission to stay and work in the US.
According to the report, Judge Xinis’s order on Friday said the government must act to return Garcia to the U.S. by the specified deadline, ruling that there was no legal basis for his detention or removal to El Salvador. The ruling was met with applause in the courtroom, especially from supporters who had gathered outside the Greenbelt, Maryland, federal courthouse for the hearing. Garcia’s wife, a U.S. citizen, was also present to show support.
Contesting the decision, government lawyers, however, have argued that it is “constitutionally intolerable” for a judicial order to compel the U.S. government to engage with a foreign country in a specific way, especially in a matter involving foreign sovereign authority.
“A judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable,” they wrote, according to AP.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, criticized the government for its lack of action despite admitting the mistake. “Plenty of tweets. Plenty of White House press conferences. But no actual steps taken with the government of El Salvador to make it right,” Sandoval-Moshenberg reportedly told the judge during Friday’s hearing.
Garcia had fled El Salvador around 2011 due to threats from local gangs, and in 2019, he was granted a form of protection that shielded him from deportation, the report said. He had also received a work permit from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and was employed as a sheet metal apprentice.
In its appeal, the government has insisted that it has no control over Abrego Garcia’s return, asserting that it cannot be compelled to negotiate with El Salvador for his release. The U.S. attorneys argued that judicial orders cannot force the government to take action that involves the cooperation of a foreign nation, particularly when dealing with national security issues or foreign policy.
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