Judge orders Trump administration to return immigrant wrongly deported to El Salvadoran prison camp back to U.S.
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an Salvadoran immigrant, who was summarily deported to a prison camp in El Salvador last month.
Mr Garcia was arrested by immigration officials on March 12 despite having lived in the U.S. under protected legal status since 2019 before he was deported to El Salvador three days later where he is currently being held at Terrorism Confinement Centre over allegations of being a member of the notorious M-13 gang.
President Donald Trump invoked a 1812 Alien Enemy Act to arbitrarily remove ‘criminal’ undocumented immigrants from the United States to a mega prison in El Salvado following an arrangement between the Trump administration and the El Salvadoran authorities to house immigrants from other countries.
Meanwhile, without due process, innocent individuals like Mr Garcia have been summarily rounded up with criminals and sent to a prison camp in a foreign land, prompting the litigant to sue the Trump administration.
In a ruling from the bench on Friday, Judge Paula Xinis of the Federal District Court in Maryland, sharply rebuked the Trump administration officials for acting without legal basis when they arrested Mr Garcia last month and ordered that he must be returned to the United States by Monday.
Although the Trump administration acknowledged that the deportation of Mr Garcia was a mistake, they argued that there is little that can be done to repatriate the litigant back to the U.S. while also trying to make a case of him being a member of the MS-13 gang.
Ms Xinis refused the Trump administration’s claims, noting that there must be an indictment or charges against Mr Garcia for the government to have a strong argument to support any claim of someone being a member of such a deadly criminal organisation.
“In a court of law, when someone is accused of membership in such a violent and predatory organisation, it comes in the form of an indictment, complaint, criminal proceeding — a robust process, so we can address the facts,” Ms Xinis said. “I haven’t yet heard that from the government.”
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