DOJ says Kilmar Abrego Garcia will "never walk freely in the US"

DOJ issues comment on Kilmar Abrego Garcia case

The Department of Justice told a federal judge on Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will "never walk freely in the U.S."

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice told a federal judge on Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will "never walk freely in the U.S." 

What we know:

Abrego Garcia's lawyers said in a Maryland court on Friday that the Trump administration has produced thousands of pages of documents in this case – but his lawyers have only received 164 pages. 

The Trump administration has invoked the state secrets privilege in the case, arguing that releasing details in open court or to a judge in private about any efforts to return Abrego Garcia would jeopardize national security. 

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said their explanation for invoking state secrets privilege was inadequate. 

"There’s simply no details," she said. "This is basically ‘take my word for it.’"

Xinis said the administration needs to "do a little bit more to show its work" on why it believes the state secrets privilege applies.

"We think we’ve provided significant information," said Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn.

"Abrega Garcia's attorneys are trying to force the government to disclose information about not only his whereabouts, but also what the government is doing to facilitate his return, and the government resisting that on the grounds of state secrets of privilege," said international law professor Milena Sterio. 

What they're saying:

Trump attorneys told Xinis that Abrego Garcia "will never walk freely in the U.S." 

"That sounds to me like an admission you will not take steps to facilitate the release or return of Abrego Garcia," Xinis said. 

"That's about as clear as it can get." 

What's next:

Sterio said the next step from Xinis could be to hold government officials in contempt for failure to comply with the court order. 

"That is a tool that court judges have at their disposal in normal litigation. But it is a rule that's rarely invoked against the government, because these government officials, they're not acting in their individual capacity, they are there representing the government," said Sterio. 

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

The backstory:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.

On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers. 

He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang. 

Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.

His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador. 

Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the Trump administration has since maintained that there is nothing they can do to bring him back.