Lawyer for wrongly deported Maryland man says it might take contempt order to get him back

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

April 14, 2025, 1:57 PM


A lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man and alleged gang member who was deported in error to El Salvador, said Monday that it might take a contempt order to prompt the U.S. government to return him from that country. As ordered by a federal judge, U.S. officials over the weekend confirmed in a court filing that Abrego Garcia is being held in the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador -- but ignored the judge's order to detail what steps the government is taking to facilitate his return. "At some point, if somebody gets held in contempt, you might see quicker movement there," Benjamin Osorio, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, told ABC News' Start Here.

The Supreme Court last week unanimously ruled that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis "properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador." The high court also said, "The Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps."

Top U.S. officials Monday indicated that they did not intend to take any steps to retrieve Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. "That's up to El Salvador," said Attorney General Pam Bondi in an Oval Office meeting with President Trump and the visiting El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. "If El Salvador ... wanted to return him, we would facilitate it." Asked by reporters about Abrego Garcia, President Bukele responded, "I don't have the power to return him to the United States."

Judge Xinis on Friday ordered the Trump administration to provide daily updates on Abrego Garcia's status, after which another attorney for Abrego Garcia said that he would ask the judge to "take appropriate steps" if the administration doesn't make a good-faith effort to respond. "Whether it's DOJ or DHS getting held in contempt and the judge taking some move there, we'll see how that plays out," Osorio said Monday. "I imagine if they they stall too much, that's what you're going to see."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/lawyer-wrongly-deported-maryland-man-contempt-order-back/story?id=120787771

[ancianita]

1. Xinis should order plaintiffs and lawyers detained by the court until the judge sees proof that Garcia is on U.S. soil.

After she finds the defendants in contempt, of course.

[groundloop]

2. Damned straight, that's the only thing the orange bastard might understand

Every day he seems to sink to a new low, but this one is going to be hard to surpass.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. "Xinis should order plaintiffs and lawyers detained by the court ..."

Garcia is the plaintiff. The case is (variously) Abrego Garcia v. Noem or Garcia et al. v. Noem et al.

Abrego Garcia v. Noem

Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

Executive Action: Removal to El Salvador/Fear of Persecution
Abrego Garcia v. Noem (D. Md.)

Case No. 8:25-cv-00951

Fourth Circuit Case No. 25-1345

Supreme Court Docket No. 24A949

[bluestarone]

3. There has to ba a CONTEMPT order. How, i don't know. BUT i'm leaning on do the same to the GOV.

Just don't listen to the GOV. after putting a couple of their attorneys in jail. If TSF pardons them, DON"T LISTEN.

[Wonder Why]

10. Trump cannot pardon civil contempt, only criminal contempt. Civil contempt with a huge fine

would, IMHO, bypass the Marshals in case they are ordered by their superiors to ignore the court. But, on the other hand, they, themselves, can be subjected to Civil Contempt.

Civil action against the government attorneys can also be used to keep them out of defending the government.

[soldierant]

4. How sweet ...

and naive. A direct order from the Supreme Court didn't do it and he thinks a contempt order from a District judge will? Or has he just been asleep for the last eight or nine years?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. The SCOTUS order was still somewhat wish washy

and sent it back to the lower court to resolve. We haven't yet seen what might happen with an actual "contempt" yet.

[soldierant]

11. IIRC we did with Steve Bannon.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. It took a couple years to finally get Bannon on "Contempt of Congress"

and similarly to get Navarro for that same charge. But those cases were a bit different from this type of "contempt".

I.e., Ghouliani was held in "contempt" a first time, and then again a 2nd time, and was fined for both infractions. But with all the slow-walking and screwing around, Ghoul eventually settled his case.

But even before that, 45 was held in contempt 10 times for violating a gag order, and was also fined for each charge.

So what normally happens is an escalating set of punishments, but it's up to the judge and what is in the statute, as to what that could be.

[Cirsium]

5. All of them

All of the people sent to El Salvador were wrongly deported.

It might take a contempt order to get him back? Why would that work?

[nowforever]

7. He probably has been tortured

He would come back telling of the inhumanity and abuses he endured. For all we know he's dead

[cstanleytech]

8. A contempt order for contemptible people how poetic.

[republianmushroom]

9. Come on courts, Justice Dept. (cough cough) what are you going to do ?

Roberts your mess you should fix it, going to be your and your courts. legacy.

[moonshinegnomie]

12. send local marshals to the home of some top administrtaion officials responsible

do it late at night. no knock warrant at their homes. take them into custody and lock them up in local maryland prisons. hold them incognito in solitary.
basically kidnap them just like they did to garcia.

and keep them there unitl garcia is returned to us soil. since the administration has decided that law dont matter why bother with legal niceties....

[Miguelito Loveless]

14. People should have been in jail for contempt last week

I question whether any member of the judiciary has the spine to jail a trump functionary.