Updated April 17, 2025 at 17:31 PM ET
A federal court on Thursday denied the Trump administration's effort to appeal an order mandating that government officials be deposed about the accidental deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
"It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all," a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote. "The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order."
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador due to an administrative error and is being held at a notorious mega-prison, according to the Trump administration. His lawyers have sued the government to return him to the United States.
The Fourth Circuit ruling against the Trump administration came just one day after the government filed an appeal of a lower court order, a remarkably short time for a court to reach a ruling. It comes as Abrego Garcia's case has become another test of how far the White House is seeking to push the bounds of law through its immigration policy.
The government's unwillingness to bring Abrego Garcia back "should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear," the judges wrote.
The U.S. government has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has since designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Abrego Garcia's lawyers dispute that he is a member of the gang, and say he doesn't have a criminal record.
Maryland Judge Paula Xinis had ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release and return, an order unanimously upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
At a hearing earlier this week, Judge Xinis said that the Justice Department lawyers, which are representing the government, have provided little information of value about their efforts to bring him back.
She ordered the government to go through expedited discovery, during which Abrego Garcia's lawyers can question officials and request documentation about what they are doing — or not — to bring Abrego Garcia back.
White House calls depositions "untenable"
The White House has argued that it's up to El Salvador to decide to return Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.
The Trump administration on Wednesday appealed Xinis's order of expedited discovery. In the appeal, the DOJ argued that the Maryland court is inserting "itself into the foreign policy of the United States and has tried to dictate it from the bench," and said the depositions of government officials are "untenable."
But the appellate court slapped down that notion, calling the relief the DOJ requested "extraordinary and premature." They said that if the government conceded that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported, "Why then should it not make what was wrong, right?"
"It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well," the judges wrote. "We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time."
The DOJ could appeal the Fourth Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court.
In response to a request for comment on the appellate order, the Justice Department shared prior coverage of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi on Wednesday told reporters that it's up to El Salvador to bring Abrego Garcia back, and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said he does not have the power to return him. "He is not coming back to our country," Bondi said.
Meanwhile, agency officials at the Homeland Security and State departments must abide by Xinis's order, which requires them to be questioned under oath about the steps taken and challenges faced in order to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Xinis said this would clarify what, if anything, has been done and if the government is acting in good faith.
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