A day after a federal court docket sought particulars on the standing of a Maryland man who was deported in error to El Salvador, the State Division advised a choose that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “alive and safe” however nonetheless not on American soil.
“It’s my understanding based mostly on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is presently being held within the Terrorism Confinement Heart in El Salvador,” stated Michael Kozak, a senior bureau official for the State Division, in a declaration submitted on Saturday minutes after the 5 p.m. deadline set by the choose.
“He’s alive and safe in that facility,” Kozak added. “He’s detained pursuant to the sovereign, home authority of El Salvador.”
This undated picture supplied by CASA, an immigrant advocacy group, in April 2025, reveals Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
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The Supreme Courtroom had ordered the U.S. authorities “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to America.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the court docket order on Friday whereas speaking with reporters, claiming he wasn’t effectively versed within the case. Nevertheless, he reiterated his respect for the Supreme Courtroom, which had upheld a decrease court docket’s ruling that the U.S. authorities ought to help in returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
“If the Supreme Courtroom stated convey any person again, I might try this. I respect the Supreme Courtroom,” he stated.
Shortly earlier than the federal government submitted its first standing report back to the court docket, attorneys for Abrego Garcia filed a movement for added aid and cited Trump’s feedback.
“Yesterday, President Trump confirmed that the US has the ability to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s launch from jail and return to the US,” the attorneys for Abrego Garcia wrote.
Within the submitting, the attorneys for the Maryland man requested three extra sorts of aid, together with ordering the federal government to indicate why it shouldn’t be held in contempt “on account of its failure to adjust to the Courtroom’s prior orders.”
“The President’s acknowledgement of the US’ energy to convey Abrego Garcia again however, the Division of Justice and different Authorities businesses proceed to withstand this Courtroom and the Supreme Courtroom,” they added.
The attorneys additionally requested the choose to order the federal government to supply air transportation for Abrego Garcia to return to Maryland and to grant him parole.
In a written order earlier this week, Choose Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Maryland had requested the day by day standing report back to reply what steps, if any, the Trump administration has taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s quick return to the U.S. and what extra steps the federal government will take, and when, to facilitate his return.
Whereas Kozak’s sworn declaration solutions one of many questions Xinis requested, the response didn’t present any extra particulars about Abrego Garcia’s return.
Abrego Garcia, regardless of being issued a 2019 court docket order barring his deportation to El Salvador, the place his attorneys argue he escaped political violence in 2011, was despatched to that nation’s infamous CECOT mega-prison following what the federal government stated was an “administrative error,” based on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
A policeman guards a cell on the Terrorism Confinement Heart (Cecot) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, April 4, 2025.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters
The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, which his attorneys and his spouse deny, and argued in authorized filings that as a result of Abrego Garcia is now not in U.S. custody, the courts can’t order him to be returned to the U.S. nor order El Salvador to return him.
Xinis ordered the federal government to assist in returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S., which the Supreme Courtroom then upheld on Thursday.
“The order correctly requires the Authorities to ‘facilitate’ Garcia’s launch from custody in El Salvador and to make sure that his case is dealt with as it could have been had he not been improperly despatched to El Salvador,” the Supreme Courtroom’s unsigned order said.
