Inset: President-elect Donald Trump on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube). Background: Immigration records for Kilmar Abrego Garcia (WTTG/YouTube).
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador by the U.S. government last month, is “alive and secure” at a notorious work prison there, the State Department insists — but his “future is up to” the Central American country, according to President Donald Trump.
The facility, known as the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), has been described as a “black hole of human rights” and “steel pit” where terrorists, murderers and “psychopaths” are reportedly held, according to the BBC.
Trump said on Saturday night that it was ultimately up to President Nayib Bukele, of El Salvador, to decide what to do with “barbarians” like Abrego Garcia, who were deported under an 18th-century wartime authority last month and placed in CECOT custody — Abrego Garcia mistakenly, despite the fact that he had legal permission to live in the U.S. as a protected resident of Maryland, with his wife and child both being U.S. citizens.
“Looking forward to seeing President Bukele, of El Salvador, on Monday!” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.
“Our Nations are working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity,” Trump said.
“President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” Trump added. “These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government. They will never threaten or menace our Citizens again!”
Attorneys for the Justice Department on Friday repeatedly stonewalled U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on her inquiries about Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported on March 15 under the administration’s unprecedented use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The administration has defied Xinis’ order to bring Abrego Garcia home despite the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday largely upholding her previous ruling — requiring the DOJ to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the country.
A major point of contention in the Abrego Garcia case has been Xinis’ use of the term “facilitate.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that the Supreme Court had ruled that the administration was required to “facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return” of Abrego Garcia.
DOJ lawyers said in court that they had no information on Abrego Garcia’s location — and could not contradict the plaintiff’s assertion that he was in El Salvador — as the Justice Department was “still internally reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision” and “vetting” what it could say exactly to the court.
Xinis addressed that point in a written order Friday morning, saying that the Trump administration’s “suggestion that they need time to meaningfully review a four-page order [from the Supreme Court] that reaffirms this basic principle [that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was illegal] blinks at reality.”
Per her written order, the judge demanded to know what steps the DOJ had taken to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, sparking a testy exchange.
“The defendants are not yet prepared to share that information,” Ensign responded, according to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney.
“That means they’ve done nothing,” Xinis fired back. “The irreparable harm continues. I’m not sure what to take from the fact that the Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly, and yet I can’t get an answer today.”
Ensign reportedly suggested that Xinis give the government until Tuesday, April 15, to provide her with some answers, but noted that the response might “include assertions of privilege.”
The back-and-forth returned to the high court’s Thursday ruling, with Xinis reportedly saying: “We’re not going to slow-walk this. We’re not relitigating what the Supreme Court has already put to bed.”
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign replied, “We read the Supreme Court’s order differently.”
On Saturday, Michael Kozak — a senior State Department official who’s had alleged communications with the U.S. embassy in El Salvador — filed a two-page declaration with the lower court, saying Abrego Garcia was alive and being held at the terrorism center, though further details could not be provided on what efforts were being made exactly to bring him back.
“I am aware that the instant lawsuit has been filed seeking the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States from El Salvador,” Kozak said.
“I provide this declaration based on my personal knowledge, reasonable inquiry, and information obtained from other State Department employees,” he explained. “It is my understanding 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. He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.”
On Friday, Trump suggested that he would return Abrego Garcia to the United States if that’s what was ordered by the Supreme Court.
“If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, according to Politico. “I respect the Supreme Court,” the president said. “I have great respect for the Supreme Court. I’m not totally well versed as to the specific case, but if they said to bring him back, I would tell them to bring him back.”
Kozak’s update was filed 10 minutes after Xinis’ deadline Saturday.
While he did confirm that Abrego Garcia was “alive and secure” based on his “personal knowledge, reasonable inquiry, and information obtained from other State Department employees,” it’s unclear whether or not Kozak directly spoke with anyone who has seen Abrego Garcia or communicated with him directly.
The Maryland dad’s legal team filed court documents Saturday, asking that Xinis officially begin the process of contempt proceedings and start ordering them to adhere to specific requirements being asked of them by the courts.
“Defendants accordingly request that the Court order the Government to show cause why it should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with this Court’s orders, in accordance with its inherent authority,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a motion for additional relief. “Plaintiffs request that the Court order the Government to take by end of the day Monday, April 14, 2025, the specific steps set forth above to comply with the injunction in this case; order expedited discovery as set forth above; and order the Government to show cause by 10 a.m. Monday, April 14, 2025 why it should not be held in contempt due to its failure to comply with the Court’s prior orders.”
In their proposed order on Saturday, Abrego Garcia’s team laid out four specific steps that the government should be required to take to comply with Xinis’ preliminary injunction.
First, the lawyers asked Xinis to order the government’s “agents and contractors” to release Abrego Garcia from custody in El Salvador “pursuant to the contract or arrangement providing for his detention there at the Government’s direction,” per the proposed order.
Next, the attorneys asked that “dispatch personnel” accompany Abrego Garcia upon his release from CECOT “to ensure his safe passage to the aircraft that will return him to the United States.” Third, they requested that air transportation be provided for Abrego Garcia to return to Maryland as he may not be in “current possession of sufficient identification” to board a commercial flight home.
Lastly, Abrego Garcia’s team asked that he be issued “parole pursuant to INA Section 212(d)(5), 8 USC § 1182(d)(5)” and that all paperwork and forms required to allow him to reenter the United States be provided for by the government.
“The Government should immediately produce contemporaneously prepared documents, in such form as they existed at the time of Abrego Garcia’s removal, sufficient to reflect the terms of any agreement, arrangement or understanding regarding the Government’s use of CECOT to house U.S. deportees,” the proposed order says.
“To the extent the Government contends that such documents do not exist, it should be ordered to produce a witness for Tuesday’s hearing who can testify from personal knowledge about the terms of the arrangement,” the order adds. “The Government should produce witnesses for Tuesday’s hearing from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and Department of State who can testify from personal knowledge about (i) Abrego Garcia’s current physical location and custodial status; (ii) what steps, if any, the Government has taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States; (iii) whether the Government has informed officials at CECOT that it wishes Abrego Garcia to be released into U.S. custody; and (iv) what, if any, additional steps the Government intends to take, and when, to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.”
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
