Lawyers for alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Agrego Garcia complain feds have done nothing to bring him back, despite SCOTUS order
The feds have done nothing to comply with court orders to make the El Salvador government return alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was wrongfully deported to the country’s hellhole CECOT prison, his lawyers claimed ahead of a hearing in his case later Tuesday.“
The government’s updates do not indicate that any steps have been taken to comply with this court’s and the Supreme Court’s orders,” Abrego Garcia lawyers wrote in a three-page Maryland federal court filing Tuesday. “There is no evidence that anyone has requested the release of Abrego Garcia.”
The Trump administration maintains that Abrego Garcia is a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and that he was in the country illegally, despite admitting he was deported as the result of a “clerical error.”
An immigration judge previously gave him protection from deportation after he claimed asylum.
Abrego Garcia – a Maryland resident – was shipped out last month to the notoriously dangerous and overcrowded Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) along with 260 other reputed gang members under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
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But the move went against a 2019 court order blocking Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his home county over concerns he would have been targeted by groups like the Barrio 18 gang. The ruling would have allowed for his deportation to another country.
The US Supreme Court on April 10 ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return. The high court didn’t set a deadline for Abrego Garcia’s return but instead sent the case back down to the lower court.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are expected to be in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland at 4 p.m. as they sue the administration over his removal.
In the Tuesday papers, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the feds’ claims that the high court’s order only requires them to remove “domestic obstacles” for their client’s return are wrong.
“To give any meaning to the Supreme Court’s order, the Government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia,” the filing says. “To date, the Government has not done so.”
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said during the press conference with President Trump in the Oval Office Monday that he can’t return an alleged MS-13 gang member to the US, calling the proposition “preposterous.”
“I hope you are not suggesting that I smuggle terrorists into the United States,” Bukele said. “Of course, I’m not going to do that.”
During the meeting, Trump suggested his Central American counterpart should build “five more” facilities so he could not only deport illegal immigrants but also “home-grown” criminals.
Trump said he and Attorney General Pam Bondi were looking into whether it would be legal to export “violent,” “really bad” people.
Trump, sitting next to Bukele, also took shots at CNN anchor Kailtlan Collins as she repeatedly pressed him about Abrego Garcia’s deportation — including calling her a “low-rated anchor.”
A federal lawyer said in a March 31 filing that Abrego Garcia’s removal was due to an “administrative error” but Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller denied the statement and said the lawyer who made the claim had since been removed.
When asked for comment, the Department of Justice referred The Post to Bondi’s statements on Fox News Monday, saying, “We don’t want Kilmar Abrego Garcia back.”