Updated: DOJ Fights Judge’s Order to Return Deported Man \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ The U.S. Justice Department is appealing a federal judge’s order to return a wrongly deported Maryland man from El Salvador. The case involves Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly removed despite legal protection from deportation. The DOJ suspended the attorney who admitted the error in court.
Quick Looks
- DOJ challenges judge’s order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly deported to El Salvador
- Federal judge Paula Xinis ruled the deportation had no legal basis and must be reversed
- DOJ argues courts can’t compel diplomatic action with foreign governments
- Abrego Garcia was protected from deportation under a 2019 immigration court ruling
- DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who admitted the error in court, was placed on leave
- Abrego Garcia is currently imprisoned in El Salvador’s notorious prison system
- His lawyer says the U.S. has taken “no actual steps” to secure his return
- White House continues to label him an MS-13 member, despite no evidence
- Abrego Garcia had DHS work authorization and a U.S. citizen wife
- DOJ likened judge’s order to commanding “the end of the war in Ukraine”
Deep Look
DOJ Pushes Back After Judge Orders Return of Wrongly Deported Maryland Man
A high-profile immigration case is intensifying after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) asked a federal appeals court to block a judge’s order requiring the Biden administration to secure the return of a Maryland man deported in error to El Salvador.
The man, 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was arrested and deported last month, despite a 2019 immigration judge’s ruling that protected him from removal due to credible threats from gangs in El Salvador. Now imprisoned in a notorious Salvadoran facility, Abrego Garcia has become the center of a legal and political showdown involving immigration rights, executive authority, and international diplomacy.
DOJ Appeals “Unconstitutional” Order
On Saturday, the DOJ filed an emergency motion with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to pause an order issued the previous day by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who demanded that the administration “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return by Monday night.
In its filing, the DOJ argued that the federal judiciary has no authority to compel the Executive Branch to negotiate with a foreign power or to order a foreign sovereign to act.
“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,” the government wrote.
DOJ lawyers even compared the court’s directive to ordering the U.S. to “end the war in Ukraine” or “return hostages from Gaza” — calling such mandates outside the scope of American law and diplomacy.
A Deportation That Should Never Have Happened
At the heart of the case is an admission by DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who conceded in court Friday that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported and had no legal basis for removal.
“I’m also frustrated that I have no answers for you for a lot of these questions,” Reuveni told Judge Xinis during a tense hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Reuveni was unable to explain why Abrego Garcia had been arrested or what authority permitted his removal, despite legal protections in place since 2019. The following day, the DOJ confirmed that Reuveni had been placed on leave and was not involved in Saturday’s appeal filing.
Judge Xinis Condemns the Deportation
Judge Xinis, appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled that there was “no legal justification” for Abrego Garcia’s detention or deportation. Her decision, issued Friday, also noted the grave danger he faces in El Salvador, a country currently embroiled in gang violence and where international watchdogs have flagged human rights abuses in prisons.
Her ruling required the federal government to act swiftly and coordinate with El Salvador to bring him back — a rare judicial intervention in foreign affairs and deportation enforcement.
DOJ Pushes Back Hard
In their appeal, DOJ attorneys framed Judge Xinis’s order as a violation of the separation of powers, saying courts do not have the right to dictate how the Executive interacts with foreign governments.
“It is an injunction to force a foreign sovereign to send back a foreign terrorist within three days’ time,” the DOJ wrote. “That is no way to run a government. And it has no basis in American law.”
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
According to his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia is not a gang member, as the White House has claimed. Instead, he is a legally authorized resident, married to a U.S. citizen, and employed as a sheet metal apprentice while working toward his journeyman license.
He fled El Salvador in 2011 after receiving death threats from local gangs, and in 2019, an immigration judge ruled he qualified for protection from deportation.
Despite this, ICE detained and deported him last month, with no clear explanation provided during Friday’s court proceedings.
The White House Response: Unyielding
While the DOJ acknowledged the error, the White House has doubled down, painting Abrego Garcia as a member of the violent MS-13 gang — a label that has become politically charged in immigration debates. But attorneys for Abrego Garcia say no such connection exists and that his removal violated both due process and U.S. immigration law.
Sandoval-Moshenberg told the court that “no actual steps” have been taken by the government to undo the damage.
“Plenty of tweets. Plenty of White House press conferences. But no actual steps taken with the government of El Salvador to make it right,” he said.
Legal Stakes and Human Rights Concerns
The legal case raises broader questions about executive authority in immigration enforcement, judicial power, and the role of diplomacy in correcting wrongful deportations. It also highlights the human toll of administrative errors and the lack of safeguards for noncitizens with legal status who become entangled in the U.S. immigration system.
Abrego Garcia is currently being held in a Salvadoran prison that has drawn international criticism for overcrowding and abuse. Human rights advocates warn that his life could be at risk if he remains there.
Final Thoughts
The wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has sparked a constitutional clash between federal courts and the Justice Department, placing the Biden administration — and now the Trump-era policy apparatus reinstated under his second term — under scrutiny.
While the U.S. government admits to making a mistake, it argues that the judiciary has no power to fix it via diplomacy. Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia remains imprisoned abroad, his fate uncertain, as courts debate whether American justice ends at the border or extends to correcting errors made within it.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to weigh in swiftly, as the deadline to return Abrego Garcia draws near.
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