The Trump administration is facing renewed legal pressure after attorneys for a Maryland man deported to El Salvador accused federal officials of ignoring a Supreme Court order to facilitate his return to the United States. The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, now detained in El Salvador's maximum-security CECOT prison, has become a flashpoint in the administration's broader immigration enforcement strategy.
On Tuesday, attorneys representing Abrego Garcia filed a motion ahead of a scheduled hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, arguing that federal officials have not taken a single step to comply with the high court's directive. "There is no evidence that anyone has requested the release of Abrego Garcia," the filing stated.
The Supreme Court last week ruled unanimously that the federal government must "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia and ensure his case is treated as if he had not been wrongfully deported in March. Justice Department attorneys, however, have maintained that "facilitate" refers narrowly to removing U.S. domestic obstacles and does not compel the government to actively engage foreign authorities.
"The Government contends that the term 'facilitate' is limited to 'remov[ing] any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien's ability to return here.' Not so," Abrego Garcia's lawyers wrote in Tuesday's filing. "To give any meaning to the Supreme Court's order, the Government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia. To date, the Government has not done so."
Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaking at an Oval Office meeting Monday alongside President Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, reinforced the administration's interpretation. "If El Salvador ... wanted to return him, we would facilitate it," Bondi said. "That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That's not up to us."
Bukele, asked about the case, described Abrego Garcia as a terrorist and dismissed the notion of extradition. "How could I return him to the United States? I smuggle him to the United States? Of course I'm not going to do it," Bukele said. "I don't have the power to return him to the United States."
Abrego Garcia, who fled political violence in El Salvador in 2011, had been protected under a 2019 U.S. court order barring his deportation. Nonetheless, he was sent to El Salvador on March 15, where he is now being held as part of a U.S.-funded initiative to outsource migrant detention. The Trump administration has paid $6 million to house detainees like Abrego Garcia in El Salvador's CECOT facility.
His attorneys say that the U.S. has both the legal authority and contractual means to demand his return. "The Government holds contractual rights to send prisoners to its 'contract facility,' where the United States has 'outsourced' part of its prison system," the brief noted. "It can exercise those same contractual rights to request their release."
Benjamin Osorio, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, told ABC News that the government has returned deported clients in similar past cases. "We're not asking anybody to do anything illegal," Osorio said. "We're asking them to follow the law."
"It feels a little bit like the Spider-Man meme where everybody's pointing at everybody else," Osorio added, referring to the standoff between Washington and San Salvador. "We are renting space from the Salvadorans. We are paying them to house these individuals, so we could stop payment and allow them to be returned to us."
The Justice Department submitted a sworn affidavit from a Homeland Security official on Monday instead of a full update, stating that the Department of Homeland Security does not "have the authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation."
