Trump administration appeals deportation case

Asks high court to weigh in on man's detention

By: Eduardo Cuevas
Michael Collins
and Nick Penzenstadler
USA Today

..... The family of a Maryland father mistakenly deported by the Trump administration waited Monday [04/07/2025] to learn whether he would be returned to the U.S. or remain in violent El Salvador mega-prison where he was being held.
..... The administration filed a request to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday [04/07/2025] to suspend the order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, to the United States by the end of the day. [04/04/2025]
..... U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland made the order Friday. [04/04/2025] Earlier on Monday [04/07/2025] a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left the deadline in place.
..... Xinis published a 22-page order Sunday [04/06/2025] expanding on her ruling and rejecting the Justice Department's request to halt her order as government lawyers petitioned the federal appeals court to review it.
..... In Sunday's [04/06/2025] filing, she said the Trump administration confessed to a "grievous error" by mistakenly deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center.
..... She also pushed back on claims by Justice Department lawyers hat they have no power to bring the man back.
..... There' were no legal grounds for his arrest, detention a=or removal" or evidence that Abrego Garcia was wanted for crimes in El Salvador, Xinis wrote on Sunday. [04/06/2025] "rather, his detention appears wholly lawless."
..... Abrego Garcia had complied fully with all detectives from immigration officials, including annual check-ins , and had never been charged with or convicted of any crime, the judge wrote.
..... Still, in mid-March, [2025] the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who lived in Maryland with his family, accusing him of ties to the MS-13 gang, which he as denied. There are no pending charges and his lawyers have denied the allegations.
..... In her order, Xinis said government lawyers had the chance to present evidence of alleged ties but didn't.
..... Government lawyers acknowledged in previous filings hat the Trump administration had erroneously deported Abrego Garcia to his home country despite a previous court order prohibiting his removal. The lawyers then argued the U.S., including Xinis, had no power to get him out of the Salvadoran prison.
..... "As defendants acknowledge, they hand no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador - let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere," she said. "having confessed grievous error, the defendants now argue that this Court lacks the power to hear this case, and they lack the power to order Abrego Garcia's return. For the following reason, their ... arguments fail as a matter of law."
..... A judge in Washington is separately weighing whether the Trump administration violated a court order not to depot alleged Venezuelan gang members amid ongoing legal proceedings.
..... Attorney General Pam Bondi confider the Justice Department put on leave one of tis lawyers, Erez Reuveni, after he questioned the administration's handling of the deportation.

..... Contributing: Joey Garrison, USA Today; Reuters.

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