A federal judge issued a strongly worded ruling early Sunday demanding the Trump administration return a suspected MS-13 gang member whom she said was wrongly deported to El Salvador last week.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland, an Obama apppointee, condemned the Trump administration for what he called a “grievous error” that “shocks the conscience,” after it inadvertently deported a Salvadoran migrant to a notorious prison last month and then claimed it had little ability to retrieve him.
Xinis issued a strongly worded order that served two main purposes: It provided a detailed explanation of her brief ruling on Friday, which demanded that the White House return migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States by the end of Monday, and it rejected the Justice Department’s request to suspend the order while a federal appeals court reviewed its validity.
Spanning 22 pages, Xinis sharply criticized Trump officials for deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador on March 15, in direct violation of a previous court order that allowed him to remain in the U.S. Administration officials then argued that neither they nor Xinis had the authority to retrieve him from the prison.
“As defendants acknowledge, they had 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,” Xinis wrote. “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.”
The Trump administration has continued to defend the deportation even after admitting it was in error. On Sunday, Attorney General Pam Bondi asserted on Fox News that Abrego Garcia was a gang member, citing testimony from immigration agents. She also announced that the Justice Department attorney who initially handled the case has been suspended for failing to adequately defend the administration.
The lawyer, Erez Reuveni, who was serving as the acting deputy director of the department’s immigration litigation division, was sidelined for failing to “follow a directive from your superiors,” per the New York Times. The outlet also reported that Reuveni expressed in court he was frustrated with the administration’s handling of the case.
“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences,” Bondi said in a statement.
The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to temporarily suspend Xinis’s order, which requires the administration to return Abrego Garcia to the United States by 11:59 p.m. on Monday.
“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,” government lawyers wrote. The appeals court asked Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to respond to the government’s filing by Sunday afternoon, the Associated Press reported.
Other observers have pointed out that while Xinis claims that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly labeled an MS-13 gang member, she also noted in her order that there is a fear he could face persecution by rival gangs — two statements that don’t jibe. If he was never a member of the El Salvador-based gang, they argue, then there should be no reason to suspect he’d be subjected to persecution by “rival gangs.”
The administration has also argued that MS-13 has been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, another facet of the case the Justice Department argues is beyond the purview of a federal court.