By Julia Harte
(Reuters) – U.S. officials said in court filings on Sunday that they were not obligated to help a Maryland resident get out of prison in El Salvador after he was erroneously deported, despite a Supreme Court ruling directing the government to “facilitate” his return to the United States.
Attorneys for the administration of President Donald Trump said the high court’s order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia meant they should “remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here,” not help extract him from El Salvador.
The Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019, was deported in March in violation of an immigration judge’s order blocking his removal to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is presiding over Abrego Garcia’s legal effort to undo his deportation, ordered the U.S. government to bring him back to the United States on April 4. The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s effort to overturn that ruling.
But a top U.S. immigration official said in another filing on Sunday that the order barring Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador was no longer valid “because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, the State Department said he was “alive and secure” in a terrorism confinement center in El Salvador, in response to Xinis’ order for daily updates on the Trump administration’s efforts to secure his return.
Trump is due to meet El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday. Trump told reporters on Friday his administration would bring Abrego Garcia back if the Supreme Court directed it to.
The administration’s lawyers urged Xinis on Sunday to deny Abrego Garcia’s request for more information about the government’s efforts to bring him back, warning that “such discovery could interfere with ongoing diplomatic discussions — particularly in the context of President Bukele’s ongoing trip to the United States.”
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Saad Sayeed)
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