Appeals court tells Trump it has to follow order to return illegally deported Maryland man
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals turned down an effort Thursday by the Department of Justice to slow down the process of “facilitating” the return of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The court's three-judge panel unanimously declined to suspend the upcoming sworn testimony by Trump administration officials on the matter.
The panel wrote that unlike some complicated cases, the heart of this issue is simple, saying: “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is foundational to our constitutional order.''
The judges wrote that should be “shocking” to both judges and the “intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from the courthouse hold dear.”
By not intervening in the process, the panel said it would “not micromanage” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ attempt to implement the Supreme Court’s written orders.
Abrego Garcia, 29, a sheet metal worker and father of three, was detained in March by U.S. immigration officials near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, and deported to El Salvador three days later, even though an immigration judge had ordered that he could not be returned to the Central American country.
Government attorneys acknowledged in court documents that he was deported by mistake but say they have no authority to free him because he is imprisoned in a foreign country.
“The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not,” they wrote April 17 in the new ruling. “Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.”
U.S. officials contend Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, recently deemed a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. Abrego Garcia denies being a member of the gang and he has no criminal record.
Paula Xinis, the federal judge in the case, has questioned the strength of the government's evidence, which relies on a confidential informant and clothing Garcia was wearing in 2019 police encounter.
"Defendants have claimed – without any evidence – that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13," Xinis wrote in an April 6 opinion.