A court battle is unfolding after the Trump administration defied a federal judge’s demand to help bring back a Salvadoran man who was deported, despite a standing court order that barred it.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. around 2011 and had been living in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador by ICE under Trump’s direction, even though an immigration judge had ruled in 2019 that he could not be sent back due to credible threats from local gangs.
The Supreme Court weighed in last week, but the administration doesn’t seem moved. In a seven-page legal submission, Justice Department attorneys told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that any efforts to retrieve Abrego Garcia would amount to “mandated diplomacy” and violate another country’s sovereignty, something they say a U.S. court can’t require.
That position makes clear the administration doesn’t believe it’s legally obligated to correct the wrongful deportation. Instead of complying with the judge’s demand for daily updates on efforts to return Garcia, officials from ICE and the State Department offered only brief notes. One said simply that there were “no updates.” Another confirmed Garcia is still alive in El Salvador’s high-security CECOT prison, according to Politico.
For now, it appears the Trump administration is standing firm in its refusal to act, leaving Garcia in limbo and the courts without enforcement.
