U.S. won’t say whether it’s facilitating return of mistakenly deported man, despite judge’s order

The Trump administration confirmed to a federal judge Saturday that a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported last month remains confined in a notorious prison in El Salvador.

But the government’s filing did not address the judge’s demands — upheld by the Supreme Court — that the administration detail what steps it was taking to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. The government said only that Abrego Garcia, 29, is under the authority of the Salvadoran government.

Abrego Garcia’s location was confirmed to the court by Michael G. Kozak, who identified himself in the filing as a “senior bureau official” in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

The filing comes one day after a U.S. government attorney struggled in a hearing to provide U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis with any information about Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration must bring him back.

Xinis issued an order Friday requiring the administration to disclose Abrego Garcia’s “current physical location and custodial status” and “what steps, if any, Defendants have taken [and] will take, and when, to facilitate” his return.

“It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador,” known as CECOT, Kozak’s statement said. “He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”

Kozak’s statement did not address the judge’s latter requirements.

Xinis expressed exasperation Friday with the government’s lack of information.

“Where is he and under whose authority?” the judge asked during the hearing. “I’m not asking for state secrets. All I know is that he’s not here. The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador, and now I’m asking a very simple question: Where is he?”

The judge repeatedly asked a government attorney about what has been done to return Abrego Garcia, asking pointedly: “Have they done anything?”

Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, told Xinis that he had no personal knowledge of any actions or plans to return Abrego Garcia. But he told the judge the government was “actively considering what could be done” and said that Abrego Garcia’s case involved three Cabinet agencies and significant coordination.

Before the hearing ended, Xinis ordered the U.S. government to provide daily status updates on plans to return Abrego Garcia.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond Saturday evening to an Associated Press request for comment.

Abrego Garcia has lived in the U.S. for roughly 14 years, during which he worked in construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities, according to court records.

If he is returned, he will get to face the allegations that prompted his expulsion: a 2019 accusation from local police in Maryland that he was an MS-13 gang member.

Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, his attorneys said. A U.S. immigration judge subsequently shielded him from deportation to El Salvador, ruling that he would be likely to face persecution there by gangs that terrorized his family.

The Trump administration deported him to CECOT last month anyway, later describing the mistake as “an administrative error” but insisting he was in MS-13.

Human rights groups have documented prisoner abuses at CECOT, including torture and lack of medical attention.

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.