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Main: President Donald Trump, left, waves as he greets El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta). Inset: Kilmar Abrego Garcia in an undated photo (CASA).
The U.S. Court of Appeals on Thursday said it was both “extraordinary and premature” for the Trump administration to think it could get the 4th Circuit to “micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge” after filing a request on Wednesday night to block an order demanding the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a protected Maryland resident who was mistakenly shipped to a prison in El Salvador.
In a unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel from Virginia called on the Justice Department to prove its allegations that Abrego Garcia was an alleged criminal and member of the notorious MS-13 gang in a court of law, rather than spouting them to the press and in filings without evidence.
“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter,” wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Ronald Reagan appointee, in the 4th Circuit’s order.
“But in this case, it is not hard at all,” Wilkinson said. “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
The Trump administration took its fight over the court-ordered return of Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador who was in the U.S. with protected legal status at the time of his deportation, back to the U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday night — claiming the federal judge overseeing his case has “crossed” a constitutional line and created a “fishing expedition” with her judicial demands.
“The federal courts do not have the authority to press-gang the President or his agents into taking any particular act of diplomacy,” the Justice Department said Wednesday night in an emergency motion to stay the Abrego Garcia order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland, which called on the government to “facilitate and effectuate” the return of the 29-year-old dad to the United States as soon as possible.
Wilkinson and the 4th Circuit said while they “fully respect the Executive’s robust assertion of its Article II powers,” it would be wrong to overstep Xinis and stay her decision.
“We shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision,” Wilkinson said.
The appellate court called on Trump’s DOJ to prove its claims in court if it wants to keep Abrego Garcia out.
“The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not,” Wilkinson said. “Regardless, he is still entitled to due process. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order.”
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