Trump administration is racing to deport Abrego Garcia ahead of criminal proceedings

The Salvadoran native was illegally deported to his native country in March, despite a court order finding he was likely to be targeted by gang violence there.

After Abrego Garcia sued, Xinis ordered the administration to quickly facilitate his return to the United States. But Trump administration officials resisted for months, even after the Supreme Court largely upheld Xinis’ command. Top officials labeled him a dangerous gang member and terrorist, despite Abrego Garcia’s denial, and vowed he would never set foot on U.S. soil again.

But they did return him to the U.S. in June, after securing a federal grand jury indictment charging Abrego Garcia with immigrant smuggling. Abrego Garcia has argued that the charges against him are retaliation for the embarrassment he has caused the Trump administration, and a hearing on that issue is slated for next week.

But now the Trump administration appears intent on removing Abrego Garcia from the country before that issue is resolved. Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign told Xinis that the administration is prepared to deport Abrego Garcia as soon as there are no more court orders in the way.

“If there were no prohibition, we would remove him on Friday,” Ensign said during the hearing.

Ensign was vague when pressed by Xinis on what that would mean for the criminal prosecution announced by the administration with great fanfare in June.

“I don’t know precisely how that would affect the criminal case,” Ensign said.

Xinis replied that it would be impossible to have a criminal trial if the defendant were in another country, and she noted that the Tennessee-based judge handling the criminal case has set an important hearing for next week on whether it amounts to a selective or vindictive prosecution.

The White House and Justice Department previously insisted Abrego Garcia would face trial before his deportation.

“Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in June, calling reports to the contrary “fake news.” “He will face the full force of the American justice system - including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.

Attorney General Pam Bondi also indicated at a June press conference that the criminal prosecution of Abrego Garcia would take priority over deporting him.

“He will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country, if convicted, and then returned after completion of his sentence,” Bondi said.

A White House spokesperson referred a request for comment to Justice Department spokespeople, who did not immediately reply.

Despite the pledge to proceed with the prosecution, the administration has also vowed that Abrego Garcia will not live freely in the U.S. That promise seems like the one officials have decided will take precedence.

“He will never go free on American soil,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X in June.

During the hearing Monday, Xinis also wondered why, if the Trump administration had decided to hasten Abrego Garcia’s deportation, it didn’t simply send him to Costa Rica, where Abrego Garcia has agreed to be deported and where the government had already agreed to accept him.

“Is there any insight you can shed on why we are continuing this hearing when there is a third country Mr. Abrego could go to tomorrow?” the judge, a Maryland-based Obama appointee, asked skeptically.

Instead, she noted, the administration is trying to send him to a country where Abrego Garcia has no ties and has expressed fear of persecution.

Ensign said he had some tentative information about why the administration shifted to Liberia, but he said he was reluctant to share it with the court until he confirmed it.

In fact, a formal interview teeing up Abrego’s deportation to Liberia was about to get underway just as Xinis convened her hearing — a dynamic that led her to scold the Trump administration for creating the scheduling conflict.

“That’s not fair play and it’s not going to happen in my court,” she said.

In court, prosecutors handling the criminal case against Abrego and the lawyers for the Homeland Security officials overseeing his deportation have contended that the two tracks are essentially independent of each other.

But Xinis rejected that idea Monday.

“There has to have been some coordination on the part of your clients,” she said. “It just doesn’t pass the sniff test that there has been no coordination.”

Xinis issued no rulings on Monday, but said she will need more legal briefs to address aspects of the case.