A crowd gathered outside U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday, April 10, 2025, to protest the government’s erroneous deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national, to a mega-prison in the Central American country. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is arguing that a Maryland federal court lacks the authority to require the return of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia because he’s in prison in El Salvador — even though the U.S. Supreme Court has directed administration officials to “facilitate” his return.
In addition, the judge in the highly publicized case has denied the Department of Justice’s request for another 30 days to extend its time to submit briefs. Abrego Garcia has remained in prison since March.
DOJ lawyers said in a brief filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, in Greenbelt, that because the administration has not brought back Abrego Garcia, the court cannot act on his case. “This Court lacks jurisdiction because Abrego Garcia is not in United States custody, his injury is not redressable by this Court…,” according to the DOJ brief.
It’s the same argument DOJ attorneys made before another federal judge in the District of Columbia. That judge is deciding whether hundreds of men deported to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — are in U.S. custody, rather than El Salvador’s custody, and therefore can be required to be returned.
The United States is paying the Salvadoran government up to $15 million to detain the men at a brutal mega-prison, CECOT.
Abrego Garcia was among the nearly 300 men on the deportation flights to CECOT, but was not removed under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration has admitted his removal to El Salvador was an “administrative error,” because Abrego Garcia has had deportation protections from El Salvador since 2019 due to concerns he would face violence if returned to his home country.
Need for additional time ‘rings hollow,’ judge says
The DOJ motion to dismiss the case being heard by District Court Judge Paula Xinis came after Xinis on Monday denied the Trump administration’s request for additional time.
In that request, the Department of Justice asked for 30 days to submit documents as part of an expedited briefing schedule to determine actions the government has taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
“The Court ordered expedited discovery because of Defendants’ refusal to follow the orders of this Court as affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court,” she wrote in her order denying the request for more time.
“The Court has conducted no fewer than five hearings in this case and at no point had Defendants even intimated they needed more time to answer or otherwise respond,” she continued. “Thus, to say now that additional time is needed to do that which the law requires rings hollow.”
In the DOJ brief, the Trump administration argues that even though the Supreme Court in April ruled that the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, the high court did not rule on the issue of the lower court having jurisdiction over the case.
“Those decisions do not ‘squarely address’ these jurisdictional issues and therefore are not binding as to whether Abrego Garcia’s claims are proper, his injury is redressable by this Court,” according to the DOJ filing.
The Trump administration also argues that the suit Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys must bring is a habeas corpus claim, which allows people in the U.S. who believe they are being unlawfully detained to petition for their release in court. It can be used to challenge immigration detention.
“Because Plaintiffs seek Abrego Garcia’s release from allegedly unlawful detention on the grounds that it was effected illegally, they make a core habeas claim and must bring it exclusively in habeas,” according to the DOJ brief. “But there is no jurisdiction in habeas.”
Travels to El Salvador
Two Maryland Democratic members of Congress – Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Glenn Ivey – traveled to El Salvador to meet and advocate for Abrego Garcia’s return.
Van Hollen said that Abrego Garcia had been moved from CECOT to a lower-security prison. He added that Salvadoran officials told him that Abrego Garcia was being held because of the financial agreement between the United States and El Salvador.
While Van Hollen was able to meet and speak with Abrego Garcia last month, Ivey was not.
Ivey returned from El Salvador last weekend, and said Salvadoran officials would not permit him to see Abrego Garcia, who is a resident of his congressional district.
According to Maryland Matters, Ivey said that Abrego Garica remaining in El Salvador despite the Supreme Court’s April order is inching the U.S. toward a “constitutional crisis,” because it seems like the Trump administration is “refusing to comply with court orders. That’s scary.”
At the last hearing before Xinis, DOJ attorney Jonathan D. Guynn said the Trump administration was complying with all court orders and defended statements from Trump officials, including President Donald Trump, who have stated Abrego Garcia would not return to the U.S.
Guynn said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s comment that Abrego Garcia “will not return” to the U.S. meant that if Abrego Garcia was back in U.S. custody he would be removed either to another third country or back again to El Salvador.
“He’ll never walk free in the United States,” Guynn said.
This post was originally authored and published by Ariana Figueroa from AZ Mirror via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
