Page:Abrego Garcia v. Noem District Court of Maryland Memorandum Opinion - April 6 2025.pdf/2

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Case 8:25-cv-00951-PX
Document 31
Filed 04/06/25
Page 2 of 22

in El Salvador. ECF No. 1 ¶ 59.[1] Neither the United States nor El Salvador have told anyone why he was returned to the very country to which he cannot return, or why he is detained at CECOT.[2] See Hr'g Tr., Apr. 4, 2025, 25: 13–14 (Mr. Reuveni: "We have nothing to say on the merits. We concede he should not have been removed to El Salvador."); see Hr'g Tr., Apr. 4, 2025, 34:24–35:5 (The Court: "[W]hat basis is he held? Why is he [in CECOT] of all places?" . . . Mr. Reuveni: "I don't know. That information has not been given to me. I don't know.").

That silence is telling. As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador[3]—let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere.[4] Having confessed grievous error, the Defendants now argue that this Court lacks the power to hear this case, and they lack the power to order Abrego Garcia's return. ECF No. 11 at 3. For the following reasons, their jurisdictional arguments fail as a matter of law. Further, to avoid clear irreparable harm, and because equity and justice compels it, the Court grants the narrowest, daresay only, relief warranted: to order that Defendants return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

I.Background

Abrego Garcia was born and raised in Los Nogales, El Salvador. ECF No. 1-1 at 2. His family owned a small and successful pupuseria. Id. For years, they were subject to extortion and

  1. ↑ Louis Casiano, U.S. Paid El Salvador to Take Venezuelan Tren de Aragua Members for 'Pennies on the Dollar,' White House Says, FOX NEWS (Mar. 26, 2025), https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-paid-el-salvador-take-venezuelan-tren-de-aragua-members-pennies-dollar-white-house-says.
  2. ↑ Defendants did not assert—at any point prior to or during the April 4, 2025, hearing—that Abrego Garcia was an "enemy combatant," an "alien enemy" under the Alien Enemies Act, 50 U.S.C. § 21, or removable based on MS-13's recent designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under 8 U.S.C. § 1189. Invoking such theories for the first time on appeal cannot cure the failure to present them before this Court. In any event, Defendants have offered no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any terrorist activity. And vague allegations of gang association alone do not supersede the express protections afforded under the INA, including 8 U.S.C. §§ 1231(b)(3)(A), 1229a, and 1229b.
  3. ↑ ECF No. 11-3 at 3 ("Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight . . . . "); Hr'g Tr., Apr. 4, 2025, 19:11–13 (Mr. Reuveni: "This person should -- the plaintiff, Abrego Garcia, should not have been removed. That is not in dispute.").
  4. ↑ ECF No. 1-4; ECF No. 10-2; ECF No. 10-3.

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