DOJ Says Judge Cannot Order Deported Illegal Migrant Be Returned to U.S.

Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers are arguing that a federal judge cannot order the Trump administration to facilitate the return of an alleged MS-13 gang member, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

Lawyers for the DOJ have requested that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “immediately pause” an order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, according to CBS News.

As Breitbart News reported, Xinis, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien from El Salvador, be returned to the United States “no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7, 2025.”

Per CBS News, the DOJ lawyers argued that “a judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable.”

In response to the DOJ asking the court to pause Xinis’s order, Garcia’s lawyer “urged the court to deny the government’s request”:

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers in response on Sunday urged the court to deny the government’s request, arguing lawyers for the Justice Department failed to demonstrate their argument would likely succeed on the merits. They also argued the government’s claim that the order to return Abrego Garcia “is neither possible nor proper” is “wrong on both counts.”

Erez Reuveni, who works as the acting deputy director for the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, was reported to have been placed on an indefinite leave after he questioned the Trump administration’s deportation of Garcia, according to the New York Times.

As Breitbart News reported, while Garcia “entered the U.S. illegally in 2011,” the news media has described him as a “Maryland father with protected status”:

The focus this week is on Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a migrant from El Salvado, who has been sent home despite a 2019 judicial decision that barred his deportation to just one county, El Salvador.

Garcia has been deported to El Salvador and is getting help to sue the federal government for a return back to the United States.

While the Trump administration said Garcia’s deportation was due to an “administrative error” and “oversight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed that the administration had “credible intelligence proving” Garcia “was involved in human trafficking” and that he allegedly was “a leader, of the brutal MS-13 gang.”

“The administration maintains the position that this individual — who was deported to El Salvador, and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang. That is fact number one,” Leavitt said. “Fact number two, we also have credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking. And, fact number three, this individual was a member, actually a leader, of the brutal MS-13 gang — which this President has designated as Foreign Terrorist Organization.”