section_path: Contesting deportation/Initial consideration in the Maryland district court
section_name: Initial consideration in the Maryland district court
paragraph_text: Initial consideration in the Maryland district court
  
  Abrego Garcia's wife sued the United States on March 24, 2025, with herself, Abrego Garcia, and their son as plaintiffs. Their attorneys sought court intervention to compel the US federal government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. The case was assigned to Judge Paula Xinis. The US government later acknowledged to the court that the government had been aware of the immigration judge's order preventing his removal to El Salvador, stating in a court filing that "lthough ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error." This admission marked the first acknowledgment of a mistake related to the deportation of hundreds of people on March 15.
  
  The Atlantic reported that soon after discovering the mistaken deportation, officials from the DHS, the DOJ, and the State Department (DOS) worked to find a way to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Officials "went so far as to float the idea of having the US ambassador to El Salvador make a personal appeal to the country's president for Abrego Garcia's return". However White House officials reportedly took over the case and became more "strident" in their public comments. They reportedly began to see the case as more than about Abrego Garcia and instead as "a measure of whether Donald Trump's administration can send people—citizens or not—to foreign prisons without due process". The White House denied this reporting through press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who stated "The Administration has always maintained the position that Abrego Garcia was the man we rightfully intended to deport because he is an illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member."
  
  The New York Times acquired some of the administration's initial written discussion of the case, and said that soon after the lawsuit was filed, lawyers from the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State conferred, but differed on how to respond. James Percival, a Trump appointee to the DHS, initially suggested that it should not be publicly acknowledged as a mistake, reportedly asked whether they could tell the court that Abrego Garcia is a "leader" of MS-13, and wrote "We are working to fix it so he doesn't need to be returned to the U.S." The DHS reportedly sought to have Abrego Garcia's withholding of removal order terminated, and the DOS asked whether it would be necessary to comply with a judicial order to bring him back to the US, both of which Erez Reuveni, a career lawyer at the DOJ, opposed. Reuveni also argued that the administration should seek Abrego Garcia's immediate return, and that losing the lawsuit could jeopardize "many far more important initiatives of the current administration". The administration ostensibly sought to keep Abrego Garcia separated from the gangs at CECOT.
  
  In court, despite acknowledging the error, the Trump administration has argued that the court lacks personal jurisdiction to order the return of Abrego Garcia, as he is no longer in US custody.
  
  Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, stated that the US government was claiming "that the court is powerless to order any relief... If that's true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it's done." Abrego Garcia's lawyer has requested that if necessary, the court order the Trump administration to withhold the money it pays to El Salvador to imprison men at CECOT.
  
  On April 4, 2025, Xinis ruled that his deportation to El Salvador, without any kind of judicial documentation warranting it, was illegal and that he would be irreparably harmed if he remained in El Salvador, and she ordered the government to ensure his return to the US no later than April 7. She described CECOT as "one of the most notoriously inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world" that "by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence" and places Abrego Garcia with his persecutors. She cited conditions there in her opinion as a reason why leaving Abrego Garcia in prison while the lawsuit proceeded would constitute irreparable harm.
  
  The following day, Judge Xinis issued a 22-page opinion reaffirming her previous ruling. The opinion stated the deportation "shocks the conscience" and was "wholly lawless". She also said that while there were previous assertions of Abrego Garcia's membership in MS-13, the government has not presented evidence he was a member and had essentially abandoned that argument in her court. The judge noted that by publicly labeling him a member of MS-13, the government had placed Abrego Garcia at risk in the detention facility because El Salvador "intentionally mixes rival gang members" in the facility. Xinis stated in her opinion: "Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of."
  
  In response to the government's argument that the court did not have jurisdiction over the matter since Abrego Garcia was no longer in the United States, the judge stated: "Surely, Defendants do not mean to suggest that they have wholesale erased the substantive and procedural protections of federal immigration law in one fell swoop by dropping those individuals in CECOT without recourse." The judge referred to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem 's visit to CECOT where she described the prison as "one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use" in arguing that, like any other "contract facility" that the government pays for detention, the government had the power to secure and transport detainees, including Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador.
  
  Abrego Garcia's wife sued the United States on March 24, 2025, with herself, Abrego Garcia, and their son as plaintiffs. Their attorneys sought court intervention to compel the US federal government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. The case was assigned to Judge Paula Xinis. The US government later acknowledged to the court that the government had been aware of the immigration judge's order preventing his removal to El Salvador, stating in a court filing that "lthough ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error." This admission marked the first acknowledgment of a mistake related to the deportation of hundreds of people on March 15.
  
  The Atlantic reported that soon after discovering the mistaken deportation, officials from the DHS, the DOJ, and the State Department (DOS) worked to find a way to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Officials "went so far as to float the idea of having the US ambassador to El Salvador make a personal appeal to the country's president for Abrego Garcia's return". However White House officials reportedly took over the case and became more "strident" in their public comments. They reportedly began to see the case as more than about Abrego Garcia and instead as "a measure of whether Donald Trump's administration can send people—citizens or not—to foreign prisons without due process". The White House denied this reporting through press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who stated "The Administration has always maintained the position that Abrego Garcia was the man we rightfully intended to deport because he is an illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member."
  
  The New York Times acquired some of the administration's initial written discussion of the case, and said that soon after the lawsuit was filed, lawyers from the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State conferred, but differed on how to respond. James Percival, a Trump appointee to the DHS, initially suggested that it should not be publicly acknowledged as a mistake, reportedly asked whether they could tell the court that Abrego Garcia is a "leader" of MS-13, and wrote "We are working to fix it so he doesn't need to be returned to the U.S." The DHS reportedly sought to have Abrego Garcia's withholding of removal order terminated, and the DOS asked whether it would be necessary to comply with a judicial order to bring him back to the US, both of which Erez Reuveni, a career lawyer at the DOJ, opposed. Reuveni also argued that the administration should seek Abrego Garcia's immediate return, and that losing the lawsuit could jeopardize "many far more important initiatives of the current administration". The administration ostensibly sought to keep Abrego Garcia separated from the gangs at CECOT.
  
  In court, despite acknowledging the error, the Trump administration has argued that the court lacks personal jurisdiction to order the return of Abrego Garcia, as he is no longer in US custody.
  
  Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, stated that the US government was claiming "that the court is powerless to order any relief... If that's true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it's done." Abrego Garcia's lawyer has requested that if necessary, the court order the Trump administration to withhold the money it pays to El Salvador to imprison men at CECOT.
  
  On April 4, 2025, Xinis ruled that his deportation to El Salvador, without any kind of judicial documentation warranting it, was illegal and that he would be irreparably harmed if he remained in El Salvador, and she ordered the government to ensure his return to the US no later than April 7. She described CECOT as "one of the most notoriously inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world" that "by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence" and places Abrego Garcia with his persecutors. She cited conditions there in her opinion as a reason why leaving Abrego Garcia in prison while the lawsuit proceeded would constitute irreparable harm.
  
  The following day, Judge Xinis issued a 22-page opinion reaffirming her previous ruling. The opinion stated the deportation "shocks the conscience" and was "wholly lawless". She also said that while there were previous assertions of Abrego Garcia's membership in MS-13, the government has not presented evidence he was a member and had essentially abandoned that argument in her court. The judge noted that by publicly labeling him a member of MS-13, the government had placed Abrego Garcia at risk in the detention facility because El Salvador "intentionally mixes rival gang members" in the facility. Xinis stated in her opinion: "Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of."
  
  In response to the government's argument that the court did not have jurisdiction over the matter since Abrego Garcia was no longer in the United States, the judge stated: "Surely, Defendants do not mean to suggest that they have wholesale erased the substantive and procedural protections of federal immigration law in one fell swoop by dropping those individuals in CECOT without recourse." The judge referred to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem 's visit to CECOT where she described the prison as "one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use" in arguing that, like any other "contract facility" that the government pays for detention, the government had the power to secure and transport detainees, including Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador.