Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland seems to think that her judicial authority is near absolute. She was just told otherwise by none other than the president of El Salvador.

There is a messy deportation case in Maryland where the Trump administration admitted that someone was deported due to an “administrative error.” Due to this, there has been massive sympathy drummed up in the media for the man and his family.

(Kilmar) Abrego Garcia, 29, who worked as a sheet metal apprentice and was pursuing his journeyman license, was pulled over in an Ikea parking lot and arrested on March 12, with his 5-year-old son in the car.

An immigration judge in 2019 had granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia was likely to face persecution by local gangs. He had a legal work permit issued by the Department of Homeland Security, his lawyer said.

Yet he was sent back to his native El Salvador, which President Donald Trump ’s administration acknowledged on Monday was an “administrative error.”

The case was also used as an example by Judge Boasberg in his ruling on Thursday regarding deportation flights. Except there was much more to the story.

I just read the court filings to get the full context (which may not satisfy either side):

The man is an illegal migrant from El Salvador. In 2019, ICE presented sufficient evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang for an immigration judge to deny him bond and order his… https://t.co/Xb9VY39KG8

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 1, 2025

The full post reads:

I just read the court filings to get the full context (which may not satisfy either side):

The man is an illegal migrant from El Salvador. In 2019, ICE presented sufficient evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang for an immigration judge to deny him bond and order his removal.

However, he then filed an asylum claim and obtained a withholding of removal order under the convention against torture. Essentially, he argued that despite his being here illegally and likely being a gang member based on the previous finding, he could be tortured if sent back to El Salvador. Such an order could still allow the government to deport him, but not to his home country, at least not without first contesting the order.

He has been using that order since 2019 to avoid deportation.

With that context, referring to him just as a “Maryland father” obviously does not tell the full story. And The Atlantic reporter cites the lawyer to downplay the previous finding of MS-13 ties, which I view as an unreliable source.

However, it also does not change that the Trump admin, emphasizing government incompetence, screwed up by deporting him to the country he wasn’t supposed to be deported to based on the 2019 order. This highlights the need for checks in this program.

So, an immigration judge ruled that he could be deported six years ago, but Abrego Garcia then filed an asylum claim, which was denied, and continued to live in the United States (notwithstanding the deportation order of “you don’t have to go back there, but you can’t stay here”). Once he was arrested and deported, the Trump administration conceded the error. However, there was reasonable evidence presented to a judge BACK IN 2019 that led to that initial deportation order. The asylum claim may have been denied, but the legal work permit gave him the idea that he would never be deported, as evidenced by his having a child in the time frame AFTER the deportation order was issued. Yes, this is messy, and the case deserved more adjudication than it got, obviously. It’s not entirely clear why Abrego Garcia was picked up, but the State Department has alleged that he was involved in human trafficking.

The individual in question is a member of the brutal MS-13 gang. We have intelligence reports that he is involved in human trafficking.

Whether he is in El Salvador or a detention facility in the U.S., he will be locked up and off America’s streets.@TriciaOhio pic.twitter.com/nHEGzM52Cn

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 4, 2025

On Friday, Judge Paula Xinis decided that she had the authority to order that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be returned to the United States.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis issued the order Friday requiring the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia following an extraordinary hearing during which the government flatly admitted that he’d been deported in violation of federal law.

“This was an illegal act,” Xinis told a Justice Department lawyer. “Congress said you can’t do it, and you did it anyway.”

… Xinis, an Obama appointee, said Friday the government had shown her nothing to back up the claims of gang membership.

“That’s just chatter, in my view. I haven’t been given any evidence,” the judge said. “In a court of law, when someone is accused of membership in such a violent and predatory organization, it comes in the form of an indictment, a complaint, a criminal proceeding that has robust process so we can assess the facts.”

The Justice Department immediately appealed Xinis’ decision to the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement following the ruling by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis.

Bingo. Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador. He is now back IN his native country. We do know that El Salvador is waging war on gang violence, which has led to the mass lockup that we have seen in that country. The United States, six years ago, had evidence in hand that Abrego Garcia was gang-affiliated. “Administrative error” or not, El Salvador is under no legal obligation to hand back one of its citizens, unless the United States requests either extradition (for a crime) or a court order. Everyone involved, from Judge Xinis to the Trump administration, says that Abrego Garcia has no criminal charges or criminal record, so El Salvador is not obligated under the extradition treaty to hand him back over. A court order would be possible, but that could be a problem due to Abrego Garcia’s status.

Lawyers for both sides and the judge all acknowledged that the U.S. government has previously returned people to the U.S. under a court order after they were inadvertently deported. Xinis said it was unclear, however, whether any of those cases involved someone imprisoned overseas.

While legal minds have said that the Trump administration should “just ask them nicely” to get Abrego Garcia back out of El Salvador, that runs back into the problem that he is a citizen of El Salvador who is currently in El Salvador, and the Trump administration does not want him back here. And, as President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador posted on X on Friday evening, he isn’t at all impressed with Judge Xinis, nor inclined to cooperate with her demands.

https://t.co/ahmffGCdpn pic.twitter.com/oegtIbgvRd

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 4, 2025

Well, I guess that answers THAT question. Judge Xinis, I believe President Bukele is saying “no.” You should feel free to take that up with him.

Now, is the case absolutely over? Probably not, but I have a feeling that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not going to be leaving El Salvador anytime soon. One can have sympathy for his wife, child, and two stepchildren (and perhaps a lot of questions about why you would marry someone with a deportation order who was also denied asylum), acknowledge that the Trump administration made a mistake by handing him over to his home country, and still say that Abrego Garcia had no legal right to be in the United States. With President Bukele weighing in, Judge Xinis’s options have narrowed considerably – but that doesn’t mean that she won’t try to make things miserable for the Justice Department lawyers in her court.

Featured image via succo on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license