In their words: What judges and Trump’s government say about Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation
By BILL BARROW
Associated Press
President Donald Trump’s administration has dug in on its contention that the government should not have to repatriate Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite U.S. Supreme Court and lower court rulings that he was wrongly deported and should be returned to the United States.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has required daily status updates on what the Trump administration is doing to return Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran who had been living in Maryland and is married to a U.S. citizen.
For weeks, officials have alternated between admitting Abrego Garcia was deported in error and arguing that the U.S. has no more power in the matter because he’s now in El Salvador.
Here is a look at what judges, federal officials and Trump lieutenants have said about Abrego Garcia’s case.
A claim of MS-13 gang activity
SPRING 2019: During Trump’s first administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains Abrego Garcia and, according to court records, asserts that an informant has identified him as “a verified gang member.” An immigration judge denies Abrego Garcia bond, saying he is “confirmed to be a ranking member of the MS-13 gang by a proven and reliable source.”
The official Notice to Appear in immigration court, however, focuses only on the undisputed fact that Abrego Garcia previously crossed the U.S. border without legal status — he “was not then admitted or paroled after inspection by an immigration officer,” the notice says. Abrego Garcia and his attorneys deny any gang affiliation; he has never been charged with a related crime.
FALL 2019: Another immigration judge grants Abrego Garcia protection from removal to El Salvador, affirming his contention that he would be endangered by local gangs there. But the judge denies him blanket asylum, noting that “withholding from removal, in contrast to asylum, confers only the right not to be deported to a particular country rather than the right to remain in the U.S.” This point will become key to the Trump administration’s current arguments.
March 12, 2025: According to court documents, ICE agents arrest Abrego Garcia, telling him his “immigration status has changed.” He’s later deported to the CECOT prison in El Salvador.
March 31: In response to a lawsuit seeking Abrego Garcia’s return, the Trump administration writes in a filing that “ICE was aware of his protection from removal” to his home country but he “was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.”
Officials’ comments on Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and status
APRIL 4, 2025: Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni says in court: “We concede he should not have been removed to El Salvador.” Xinis presses for a reason he is being held, and Reuveni replies: “I don’t know.”
Xinis orders the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, and the White House questions her power. “We are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt says.
APRIL 5: The administration appeals Xinis’ order and backs away from any admission of error. In an unsuccessful appeal to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General John Sauer writes: “The Executive’s assessment of the danger that Abrego Garcia poses to this country is entitled to substantial deference.”
APRIL 6: Attorney General Pam Bondi affirms on Fox News Sunday that Reuveni, the Justice Department’s acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation, has been placed on leave because of statements to Xinis.
“He shouldn’t have taken the case, he shouldn’t have argued it if that’s what he was going to do,” Bondi says. She compares his exchanges with Xinis to “a defense attorney walking in, conceding something in a criminal matter” about their client.
APRIL 11: The government tells Xinis it doesn’t know Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts. Drew Ensign, deputy assistant attorney general, says the administration is “actively considering what could be done” in response to a Supreme Court order that it must work to bring him back. But Ensign says he has no personal knowledge of Abrego Garcia’s status.
APRIL 12: For the first time, a U.S. government official confirms Abrego Garcia is alive and in El Salvador’s massive CECOT prison.
“It is my understand based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador,” writes Michael G. Kozak, who identifies himself in the document as senior official in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. “He is alive and secure in that facility.”
Kozak amplifies the administration’s contention that the U.S. no longer has jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia: “He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”
APRIL 13: Evan Katz, assistant director for the Removal Division of ICE, files a daily status update on Abrego Garcia. It says he “should not have been removed to El Salvador.” Still, Katz reintroduces the argument that “Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding because of his membership in MS-13.”
Digging in at the Oval Office and beyond
APRIL 14: Multiple Trump officials speak on the matter in an Oval Office appearance that includes El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Attorney General Pam Bondi puts the burden on El Salvador. “That’s not up to us,” she says, adding, “If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it. Meaning provide a plane.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller highlights as fact the allegation that Abrego Garcia is in MS-13. So, Miller reasons, Abrego Garcia “was no longer eligible for any foreign immigration relief in the United States” and was deported under a “valid” order from an immigration judge.
Then, according to Miller, “a district court judge tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here.”
Also at the White House, Miller chides reporters and swipes at Reuveni, the suspended lawyer: “Nobody was mistakenly deported anywhere. That’s a big fact that all of you, most of you, have gotten wrong. No one was mistakenly sent anywhere. The only mistake that was made is a lawyer put an incorrect line in a legal filing that’s since been relieved.”
Miller also asserts that the Supreme Court found “the District Court order was unlawful.”
The justices’ ruling said the “district court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.” But they concluded that Xinis “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’” Abrego Garcia’s release and said the administration must “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
Bukele declares it preposterous even to ask his intentions. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it,” he says, adding he doesn’t “have the power to return him.”
Later, the administration’s daily status update echoes the White House rhetoric: Abrego Garcia is “in the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation,” writes Joseph Mazzara, acting general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. He is “no longer eligible” for U.S. court protection given that the administration has declared MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization, the update says.
APRIL 15: Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary, tells ABC News, “We should explain to viewers watching why this clerical error occurred in the first place. It’s because this MS-13 gang member was given protective orders because there were rival gangs in El Salvador that might go after him if he was sent there. So, he could have been sent to Egypt, Nicaragua, Honduras, you name it. He just couldn’t go to El Salvador. So the bottom line, I think, it almost bolsters the government’s case that this is a member of MS-13.”
She adds: “He should either be in a U.S. detention facility or in an El Salvadorian jail.”
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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed reporting.
