The Trump administration, in a filing posted to the docket several minutes after a 5 p.m. Saturday deadline, said a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador is alive and remains detained there.
The late-in-the-day filing is in an effort to comply with Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order from Friday, which demanded the government provide a daily status report on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and conditions, along with any efforts being taken to bring him back to the United States.
“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,” Michael G. Kozak, a senior bureau official in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, wrote in a two-page sworn declaration. “He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”
In a separate filing also submitted Saturday evening, asking for additional relief, attorneys for Abrego Garcia used President Donald Trump’s words against him.
“Yesterday, President Trump confirmed that the United States has the power to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from prison and return to the United States: ‘If the Supreme Court said, ‘Bring somebody back,’ I would do that. … I respect the Supreme Court,” the attorneys quoted Trump as telling reporters Friday night.
The attorneys were referencing a Thursday ruling from the high court that ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from a Salvadoran prison to which he was sent on March 15.
“Of course,” the man’s lawyers wrote, “that is precisely what the Supreme Court did when it ruled that this Court’s injunction ‘properly requires the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.’”
However, Trump appeared to walk back his Friday message in a Saturday post on Truth Social.
In the post, Trump said he is working with President Bukele of El Salvador “to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity.”
“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 wrote. “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.”
The two leaders are scheduled to meet Monday in the White House.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia are asking the district court to order the government to, by the end of the day Monday, take specific steps to comply with the injunction in the case and to order expedited discovery of the government’s actions — or failure to act — in facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States.
They are also asking the court to order the government to show cause by 10 a.m. Monday as to why it should not be held in contempt due to its failure to comply with the court’s prior orders, including any failure to a comply with the court’s April 11 order that stated the government needed to provide, by Friday morning, information on what steps it was taking to coordinate Abrego Garcia’s return following the Supreme Court’s order from the day prior.
Xinis on Friday had directed the Trump administration to “take all available steps to facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return following Thursday’s high court order. She also asked for a daily update on Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts.
The Supreme Court decision did not require the Trump administration to immediately try to return Abrego Garcia because Xinis’ deadline to bring him home had already passed. But the unsigned decision stated that the government “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
The ruling rejected the administration’s emergency appeal of Xinis’ April 4 order, which called for Abrego Garcia’s return by April 7.
On Friday, the government said it needed more time to provide Xinis with the requested information on Abrego Garcia.
The Maryland father, a legal resident protected from deportation by a 2019 court order, was mistakenly sent to the Salvadoran prison along with other men who were alleged to be gang members.
The Trump administration claims Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, though he has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. His attorneys said there is no evidence he was in the gang, and immigration officials have conceded he should not have been sent to El Salvador, his country of birth, calling it an “administrative error.”
Saturday is the first time since March 15 that the government has said Abrego Garcia is alive.
Xinis is set to hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon to check in with the government on where it is in terms of getting Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.