Can the US return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador?

On March 12, Kilmar Abrego Garcia drove home with his young son in Maryland when he was stopped by agents of American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE).

Agents put Mr Garcia in custody and then brought him to detention facilities in Louisiana and Texas.

According to a federal judge, after three days, “without any notification, legal trial or hearing”, Garcia was back in his native El Salvador in a notorious prison known for members of housing.

The government said he was deported because of an “administrative error”.

But despite that, Mr Garcia remains locked up in El Salvador while lawyers are debating the unusual fine tricks of the case.

A court in Maryland ordered Mr Garcia to return to the US, but Trump officials argued that they cannot force El Salvador to return Mr Garcia. The administration also argued that the judge who ordered his return was missing the authority to do this.

On Monday, the Supreme Court brought a temporary introduction to lower judicial orders, while considering the case.

Immigration experts say that, since US President Donald Trump uses a hard approach for illegal immigration, this matter has the potential to increase the right process for immigrants.

‘If the American Supreme Court would accept [the Trump administration’s] Position, it would completely avoid every constitutional state in the immigration process, “said Maureen Sweeney, director of the Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice of the University of Maryland, at the BBC.

“Because they could pick up someone at any time and send them somewhere without repercussions.”

Judge Paula Xinis in the US wrote in a Sunday submission that ICE officials did not follow procedures in the Immigration and Nationality Act when they deported Mr Garcia to El Salvador.

She ruled that the US should bring him back before midnight on Monday. The fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and wrote that the US “has no legal authority to grab a person who is legally present in the United States of the street”.

Nevertheless, the Trump government argued that it cannot pay and says that the request of judge Xinis falls outside its jurisdiction.

“Neither a federal court nor the United States have the authority to tell the government of El Salvador what to do,” wrote the American lawyer -general D John Sauer in an appeal at the Supreme Court.

Nicole Hallett, a professor at the Law School of the University of Chicago, said that although it is true – judges of the US District do not recommend to take action – they can order the US government to have Mr Garcia return.

She also said that the US has previously facilitated the return of incorrectly deported individuals.

Prof Hallett also asked the government’s claim that the US is powerless to force El Salvador to release Mr Garcia, referring to an agreement between the two countries.

The US, under the Trump government, paid the government of El Salvador $ 6 million to house prisoners that it sends, according to CBS News, the American partner of the BBC. Top officials such as State Secretary Marco Rubio and Trump himself have publicly recommended the scheme.

“It is almost as if the Salvadoran government acted as an officer of the American government,” said Mrs. Hallett, with the argument that this makes the release more plausible.

Mr Garcia’s lawyers argued that because El Salvador was holding Mr Garcia “on the direct request and on the basis of financial compensation” of the US, the court could order the US government to request his return.

Garcia is one of the 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans who have been deported under the Trump government to the infamous mega prison of El Salvador. Officials claim that they are gang members and are therefore subject to deportation.

Mr Garcia, who is married to an American citizen, has no tire tires and is never accused of a crime, says his lawyer.

He was also protected by an order “withholding removal,” which means that the US government cannot return him to El Salvador because he could suffer damage. The command dates from 2019, when Ice first in custody Mr Garcia and claimed that he belonged to the MS-13-criminal organization, a statement that he denied at the time.

Such orders often occur, immigration lawyers told the BBC and are an alternative to asylum protection.

“It was an illegal act, for the US to bring him back to the country where he could not be sent back,” said Amelia Wilson, director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at Pace University.

A judge eventually granted Mr Garcia the 2019 order after he ‘testified about how he was the victim of Bendegeweld in El Salvador when he was a teenager and he came to the US to escape that all’, his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, in a statement of March 2025.

The judiciary lawyer Ereveni acknowledged that at the time the “government did not appeal against that decision, so it’s final”.

The Trump government now repeats the allegations that Mr Garcia belonged to MS-13, but Judge Xinis said that the government has made this claim “without any evidence” and had not delivered a removal order or order.

The Trump government continues to insist its case at the highest court of the nation, which sets up a potential confrontation on the deportation strategy of the White House.

Chief judge John Roberts issued an administrative stay on Monday evening and pauted lower statements while the American Supreme Court is considering the government’s profession.

President Trump praised the residence as a victory and wrote Social on Truth that the pronunciation allowed the President to “protect our boundaries and to protect our families and our country themselves.”

Meanwhile, immigration lawyers keep a close eye on Mr Garcia’s matter, given a test for how much power the administration can exercise over American immigration.

“If the Trump government tries to remove these people by bypassing the immigration courts,” said Mrs. Wilson, “there is a direct and obvious line between what they do, and an attempt from the administration to fully use the judicial and appropriate process.”