A U.S. district judge has ordered the government to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, to the United States by the end of Monday (April 7). Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, despite a 2019 immigration court ruling that protected him from deportation due to potential persecution by local gangs.
Judge Paula Xinis issued the order after an extraordinary hearing where the government admitted the deportation violated federal law.
“This was an illegal act,” Judge Xinis stated during the hearing, emphasizing that Congress prohibited such actions.
The deportation has sparked a potential clash between the judicial branch and President Donald Trump’s administration, which has labeled Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 gang member, a claim his attorneys dispute.
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, has not spoken to him since his deportation. She, along with supporters, has been actively campaigning for his return.
“To all the wives, mothers, children who also face this cruel separation, I stand with you,” Vasquez Sura said during a rally in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Abrego Garcia, who fled El Salvador in 2011 due to gang threats, was legally working in the U.S. as a sheet metal apprentice. His deportation, described by the White House as an “administrative error,” has raised concerns about the expulsion of noncitizens who were granted permission to remain in the country.
The court’s order demands his return by midnight Monday.
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