US District Judge Paula Xinis on Friday directed the Trump administration to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre by April 7 after he was mistakenly sent there month ago. Xinis told Justice Department lawyers “this was an illegal act” at a federal court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, reported Bloomberg.

“From the moment he was seized, it was unconstitutional. If there isn’t a document, a warrant, a statement of probable cause, then there is no basis to have seized him in the first place. That’s how I’m looking at it,” National Public Radio (NPR) quoted the federal judge as saying.

Justice Department and Garcia’s lawyers during hearing

While acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported because of an administrative mistake, DOJ lawyers stated in court papers that he is part of the criminal gang MS-13 and that the judge lacks the authority to order his return since Abrego Garcia is no present in the US.

Garcia’s lawyers told the court that did not make sense and said the Department of Homeland Security should bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador within no time. One of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said, “They’re coming before this court and saying we’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of options.” Gracia’s wife said, “In a blink of an eye, our three children lost their father, and I lost the love of my life, his mother lost his son, his siblings lost their brother.”

DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni requested the judge and sought more time to converse the matter with his clients in the Trump administration.

Why was Garcia sent to El Salvador?

Abrego Garcia was removed from the US on March 15th along with hundreds of other alleged gang members, who remain placed at a prison in El Salvador. The trump administration believes that all of the men have links to MS-13 or Tren de Aragua, two gangs that the US called as Foreign Terrorist Organisations.

White House Reacts

“We suggest the judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” Bloomberg quoted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying. The Trump administration on Friday indicated it will appeal the ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to NPR.

The government, in its filing, had said residents shouldn’t be “wrongfully removed” from the country, the US has a “strong public interest in not importing members of violent transnational gangs into the country.”

“The individual in question is a member of the brutal MS-13 gang. Whether he is in El Salvador or a detention facility in the US, he will be locked up and off America’s streets,” Bloomberg quoted Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin as saying.

The order follows the standoff between the government and another federal judge Boasberg who said the US may have knowingly defied his order to pause deportations of Venezuelans which the Trump administration claims are gang members.