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Main: President Donald Trump during an event on energy production in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Inset: Kilmar Abrego Abrego Garcia in undated photo (CASA).
The Trump administration over the weekend continued to defy an order from the U.S. Supreme Court instructing the government to provide details about the steps it had taken to “facilitate” the return of a Maryland resident mistakenly deported to a notorious work prison in El Salvador last month. The Department of Justice on Sunday asserted that under the high court’s order — which largely affirmed a lower-court ruling — it was not required to work with Salvadoran officials so long as the government removed “any domestic obstacles” that would otherwise impede Kilmar Abrego Garcia from returning to the country.
In a seven-page filing on Sunday, the administration dug in its heels, arguing that federal courts do not have the authority to direct the administration to engage with the government of El Salvador at all, setting the stage for what is likely to be another eventual showdown at the Supreme Court.
The Justice Department further asserted that interpreting the term “facilitate” to require any additional action on behalf of the administration would not be “tenable — or constitutional.”
“This reading follows directly from the Supreme Court’s order. It tracks longstanding executive practice. And it comports with how the federal courts have understood the outer bounds of their own power,” the filing states. “On the flipside, reading ‘facilitate’ as requiring something more than domestic measures would not only flout the Supreme Court’s order, but also violate the separation of powers. The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner. That is the ‘exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations.””
Since last week, the government has refused to provide any additional information on Abrego Garcia’s status other than to notify a U.S. District Court in Maryland that he was alive and in El Salvador, despite the court requiring daily status reports regarding his return to the country.
In the Trump administration’s view, it cannot be ordered to “make demands” of the Salvadoran government or send U.S. officials to the country in connection with Abrego Garcia’s return, as the plaintiff’s attorneys have requested of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, because such measures could potentially violate El Salvador’s sovereignty.
“[A]s explained, a federal court cannot compel the Executive Branch to engage in any mandated act of diplomacy or incursion upon the sovereignty of another nation,” the filing states. “Plaintiffs invite this Court to ‘exceed’ its own ‘authority’ in the precise sort of way the Supreme Court cautioned against. This Court should decline the invitation. No additional relief is warranted at this time.”
The filing comes after President Donald Trump on Saturday evening stated that the fate of Abrego Garcia — and all of the “barbarians” deported without due process through the unprecedented use of an 18th-century wartime authority — was up to El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele.
“Our Nations are working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity,” Trump wrote on the TruthSocial platform.
“President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” Trump added. “These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government. They will never threaten or menace our Citizens again!”
Abrego Garcia’s case has garnered international attention, quickly becoming one of the most high-profile lawsuits amid the blizzard of legal challenges filed against Trump and his administration since he retook office in January.
The 29-year-old was sent to El Salvador on March 15, in error, as part of Trump’s proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) in an effort to rush through mass deportations of Venezuelan men accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang without due process.
Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, was in the U.S. with protected legal status at the time of his deportation. His wife and 5-year-old child are both U.S. citizens.
Notably, the government has proffered little, if any, evidence that Abrego Garcia was a gang member. He has no criminal record in the U.S. or El Salvador and has submitted sworn statements that he was fleeing El Salvador due to gang violence.
A Justice Department attorney earlier this month even conceded to a federal judge that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was due to an “administrative error” and said the government “made a choice here to produce no evidence,” which “speaks for itself.” However, that attorney has since been suspended from working at the Justice Department.
Last week, federal judges in New York and Texas, one of whom was appointed by Trump, both issued temporary restraining orders halting deportations without due process under the AEA.
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