GREENBELT, MD – Attorneys for a Maryland father wrongly deported to El Salvador are scheduled to clash in court on May 16 with lawyers for the Trump administration over what information can be withheld in the case.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say in court records the Justice Department has withheld information about what it has – or hasn’t – done to comply with court rulings that he must be returned the United States.
“This case is about restoring the rule of law over unchecked power,” attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement ahead of the hearing. “The Department of Homeland Security must obey the orders of the immigration courts, or else such courts become meaningless.”
Several documents filed in the case have been sealed, with the government citing state secrets privileges that allow it to keep sensitive national security information from the public.
But Abrego Garcia’s attorneys noted that several high-ranking officials – including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and even President Donald Trump – have spoken publicly about the case.
“Over and over, the Government has stonewalled Plaintiffs by asserting unsupported privileges – primarily state secrets and deliberative process – to withhold written discovery and to instruct witnesses not to answer even basic questions,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said in documents filed on May 12.
“Even as the Government speaks freely about Abrego Garcia in public, in this litigation it insists on secrecy,” they said.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland scheduled the May 16 proceedings to hear more arguments from the government on why the information should be kept secret.
Abrego Garcia, 29, was expelled from the U.S. and sent back to El Salvador in March even though a court order had barred the government from returning him to his native country.
The Trump administration admitted in court records that he had been deported by mistake but argues it has no authority to bring him back because he is in a foreign country. The U.S. government contends he is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, but Abrego Garcia and his attorneys say he is not.
Xinis has ruled the government acted illegally when it deported him and has ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in a 9-0 decision on April 10 that the government must begin the process of releasing him. But he remains in a prison outside of San Salvador.
His family has sued the U.S. government demanding his return.
Abrego Garcia, a union sheet metal worker and a father of three, had lived for more than a decade in Maryland after entering the United States illegally. He was detained in March by immigration officials near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, about a half hour outside of Washington.
He was last seen in April, when U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, was allowed to meet with him at a hotel in San Salvador.
A crowd chanting “bring him home” gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the May 16 hearing.
“These are nothing but excuses,” said Ama Frimpong, legal director for the immigrant rights nonprofit CASA. “We are looking for the judge to recognize that, essentially, the government is trying to delay and honestly refuse to comply with the court’s orders to bring Kilmer home.”
U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who attended the rally, added: “Yes, it’s about one man, but it’s about the Constitution of the United States.”