Trump Administration Mocks Judge’s Order To Bring Back Maryland Father From Salvadoran Prison – Even After Admitting He Was Deported in ‘Error’
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mocked a judicial ruling on Friday that ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a man it deported.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to obtain the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador and bring him back to the U.S. Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran national who was arrested in Baltimore on March 12 after leaving his job as a sheet metal worker to pick up his five-year-old son. The government has alleged that Abrego Garcia belongs to the MS-13 gang. But in a court filing on Monday, lawyers for U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement said Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error.”
Abrego Garcia was one of more than 260 foreign nationals arrested in the U.S. and deported to El Salvador for imprisonment. Most of those deported were Venezuelans who have no apparent connection to the Central American country. None of the people apprehended appear to have been given due process.
“The record reflects that Abrego Garcia was apprehended in Maryland without legal basis … and without further process or legal justification was removed to El Salvador,” Xinis wrote in her order after describing the deportation as “an illegal act.”
In response, Leavitt slammed the ruling and denied the judge had any legal basis for issuing it.
“We are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” Leavitt said in a statement.
White House adviser Stephen Miller mocked Xinis on X, stating that she “thinks she’s the president of El Salvador.”
Speaking of which, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele also mocked the judge’s ruling.
The White House’s response suggests that the administration is of the view that once a deportee is out of the U.S., the judiciary lacks the authority to order their return – including those the administration itself said were mistakenly deported. It is unclear if the administration believes that U.S. citizens it deports would also not be subjected to U.S. judicial oversight.
