DHS said it would receive Abrego Garcia at the port of entry – but could not extract it from El Salvador
Fifteen minutes before the trial scheduled in the wrong deportation case from Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump’s administration said in their daily status report to the court that “ready to facilitate the presence of Abrego Garcia in the United States in accordance with these processes if he is present at the port in.”
“I have been authorized to declare that DHS is ready to facilitate the presence of Abrego Garcia in the United States in accordance with the processes if he is present at the port entrance,” said Joseph Mazarra, general advisor of Acting for DHS.
However, Mazarra said, because Abrego Garcia “was detained in a sovereign domestic detention” from El Salvador, DHS did not have the authority to extract him “from the domestic prisoners of foreign sovereignty.”
If Abrego Garcia is present at the port in, he will be subject to DHS, because of his alleged membership in the MS-13 criminal gang, Mazarra said.
“In that case, DHS will take him to detention in the United States and move it to a third country or end its deduction because of its membership in MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and move it to El Salvador,” Mazarra said.
Development came a day after the highly anticipated oval office meeting where President El Salvador said he would not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
The federal judge who ordered his return was scheduled to hear from Trump’s administrative lawyer at the court hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia entered his second month in a Mega El Salvador prison after he was deported there on March 15, despite the 2019 court orders prohibited his deportation to the country.
The photo was not dated provided by the US District Court for the Maryland District, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, forcibly led by guards through the Center for Terrorism in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
US District Court for Maryland District via AP
Administrative official Trump said Abrego Garcia, who escaped political violence at the 2011 El Salvador, was a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, but until now they had given a little evidence of the statement in court.
He was detained in Cecot El Salvador prison, who was famous for being cruel, along with hundreds of other migrant gang members, under the arrangement where Trump’s government paid $ 6 million to El Salvador to accommodate migrants deported from the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crush.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a meeting of the Monday oval office with President Trump and President El Salvador who visited, said that the return of Abrego Garcia “Whatever El Salvador.”
“If El Salvador … wants to return it, we will make it easier,” he said.
Asked by reporters about Abrego Garcia, President Bikele replied, “I have no strength to return it to the United States.”
In a motion submitted Tuesday before the trial, lawyer for Abrego Garcia argues that Trump’s government has not taken any steps to comply with orders to facilitate his release.
The photo was not dated provided by Murray Osorio PLLC showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Murray Osorio PLLC via AP
“There is no evidence that there are people who ask for the release of Abrego Garcia,” they wrote in the submission.
The lawyer also questioned the government’s interpretation of the word “facilitating,” what the government said in submitting a limited court to eliminate domestic obstacles that would prevent the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Interpreting the term in that way, lawyer Abrego Garcia argues, will make the “zero” of the Supreme Court that the government facilitates its release.
“To give meaning to the Supreme Court’s orders, the government must at least be asked to ask for the release of Abrego Garcia. Until now, the government has not done it,” they wrote in their motion.
After the US District Judge Paula Xini ordered the government to “facilitate and carry out” the return of Abrego Garcia, the Supreme Court last week in a round voice decided that the Xini Judge “correctly required the government to ‘facilitate’ Garcia’s release that would not be required.
“The scope intended from the term ‘effect’ in the district court order, however, is not clear, and can exceed the district court authority. The District Court must clarify its direction, by taking into account the respect that is owed to the executive branch in the implementation of the court to do things in the court.
Judge Xinis then changed his decision to delete the word “effect,” leaving an order to “facilitate.”
In an interview on Monday night with ABC News’ Linsey Davis, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia said he hoped that the Tuesday trial “lit a fire under the government to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders” to facilitate the release of Abrego Garcia.
“What are we asking for [of Trump] Exactly as the Supreme Court said to him, “said lawyer Benjamin Osorio.” I personally have worked with DHS before to facilitate the return of several other clients who were deported and then won their cases at the court of the circuit or in the Supreme Court, and ICE facilitated their return. “
“So we don’t ask anyone to do something illegal,” Osorio said. “We ask them to follow the law.”
“It feels a little like a spider-man meme where everyone points to others,” Osorio said about the claim of Bukele that he had no strength to restore Garcia. “But at the same time, I mean, we rented space from Salvador. We paid them to accommodate these people, so that we can stop payment and allow them to be returned to us.”
Asked if he was sure that Abrego Garcia would be returned, Osorio said he was worried but hoped.
“I am worried about the rule of law, I am worried about our constitution, I am worried about the legal process,” he said. “So at this point, I am optimistic to see what happened in a federal court hearing.”
