Feds to appeal ruling that alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia be returned to the US
The Trump administration gave notice late Wednesday that it would appeal a Maryland federal judge’s order that it take “all available steps to facilitate” the return of an alleged MS-13 gang member to the US following his deportation to El Salvador.In addition to confirming that it would appeal Greenbelt District Judge Paula Xinis’ order, the Justice Department asked the Richmond, Va.-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to immediately stay the lower court’s demand while the appeal is heard.Abrego Garcia sued the Trump administration on March 24, days after he was arrested in Maryland and sent to the Central American county alongside 260 other accused gang members.The suit argued that his deportation violated a 2019 order barring him from being sent home over concerns he’d be targeted by a rival gang, like Barrio 18.The ruling, however, didn’t block him from being sent to another country.Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia’s return to the US by April 7.Three days after the deadline, the US Supreme Court stepped in and ordered the feds to “facilitate” his return before sending the case back to Xinis to clarify her initial ruling.Justice Department lawyers claimed they were fulfilling the order to “facilitate” his return by removing all domestic obstacles for Abrego Garcia to be brought back — but also insisted they can’t force El Salvador to release one of its citizens.According to the feds, Xinis’ order that the Trump administration “take all available steps to facilitate the return” of Abrego Garcia violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers.“The federal courts do not have the authority to press-gang the President or his agents into taking any particular act of diplomacy,” the wrote in their motion to stay Xinis’ ruling.“Instead, in this context, the courts only have the authority to order the Executive to ‘facilitate’ the return of an alien removed abroad.
And as that term has long been understood and appl...