Abrego Garcia lawyers seek sanctions on Trump officials over stonewalling, defying court orders
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a judge in Maryland on Thursday to sanction Trump officials with severe fines and other penalties for what they said was an "egregious" defiance of court orders.
The attorneys said the Trump administration misleadingly told a judge for months that it could not retrieve Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, where authorities mistakenly deported him in March. But the administration's decision to return him to the United States to face criminal charges in Tennessee last week proved they had the power all along to bring him back, the attorneys argued.
"The Government's defiance has not been subtle," Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote in court papers. "It has been vocal and sustained and flagrant."
Abrego Garcia's family sued the Trump administration in March after the Salvadoran man, who entered the country illegally around 2012 and was living in Maryland, was abruptly deported to a Salvadoran terrorist prison. An immigration judge ruled in 2019 that he could be deported, just not to El Salvador.
Department of Justice attorneys told the court his deportation to the prison was a mistake, but they insisted for months that the Trump administration could not reverse the error because it had no control over El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys argued their client, an alleged member of the MS-13 gang, had not received sufficient due process. A lower court and the Supreme Court agreed and ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return so that his case could be handled in a manner consistent with immigration laws.
The lower court judge, Obama appointee Paula Xinis, ordered the Trump administration in April to return Abrego Garcia as quickly as possible and to inform Abrego Garcia's family, through depositions and other discovery, of all the steps it was taking to facilitate his return.
The Trump administration responded by asserting various privileges instead of handing over the discovery and repeatedly told the court it could not return him.
On Thursday, Abrego Garcia's attorneys cited dozens of remarks that Trump officials made outside of court that showed they were not planning to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in April, for instance, that Abrego Garcia "is not coming back to our country. . . . There is no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none."
"The Defendants' defiance of judicial orders has been accompanied by misrepresentations, stonewalling, and even questioning of this Court's authority," Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote.
Abrego Garcia's deportation became a lightning rod as the Trump administration has attempted to carry out its immigration agenda swiftly and aggressively. The Salvadoran national became the first known example of the administration fumbling over due process, to which illegal immigrants are entitled in a limited capacity.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys suggested Xinis sanction Trump officials involved in the alleged court defiance with hefty fines, civil contempt of court, and by requiring they pay back court fees.
On June 6, the DOJ announced a grand jury indictment against Abrego Garcia, charging him with three counts of trafficking illegal immigrants and conspiracy. The defendant made an initial appearance in court in Tennessee soon thereafter, marking the first sighting of him in the United States since he was deported to El Salvador.
DOJ attorneys told Xinis they plan to ask her in the coming days to toss out the Maryland civil case entirely, because now that Abrego Garcia is back in the country, the case is moot.
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