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Justice Department lawyers and attorneys for Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia will square off in court Monday as a federal judge in Maryland weighs a flurry of motions over his U.S. custody – and the Trump administration pushes to dismiss the civil case entirely – in a closely watched legal battle that’s become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis scheduled the hearing last week to consider recent motions from both sides, after Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March and returned three months later to face criminal charges in a different state.
The hearing is all but certain to reignite a high-profile fight over Abrego Garcia’s legal status in the U.S., which is currently playing out in two separate federal courts.
Ahead of the 11 a.m. hearing, here’s what to know about the civil case – and potential next steps from Judge Xinis.
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Case history
The hearing in Maryland comes after Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was summarily deported by Trump officials to El Salvador in March in violation of an existing court order. His family sued the Trump administration over his removal almost immediately, and later that month, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garica’s return to the U.S.
The ruling was later upheld by the Supreme Court, though it took three months – and many discovery hearings before Xinis – for Trump officials to eventually comply with the court’s order and return him to the U.S. in June.
On return, Abrego Garcia was immediately taken into custody in Tennessee for federal charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. Court documents show the charges were brought in late May, prompting questions as to when the investigation, and the impaneling of a grand jury, would have taken place.
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Monday’s motions hearing
It’s unclear how far Xinis will go in addressing the competing requests filed by both sides, though she signaled last week that the hearing will remain narrowly focused on the government’s motion to dismiss the civil case and the plaintiffs’ bid to transfer Abrego Garcia into U.S. custody in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had asked Xinis to issue an order blocking his possible removal from the U.S. without prior notification, pointing to statements from the Trump administration as evidence that they could try to remove him to a possible third country other than El Salvador.
“Defendants have repeatedly stated their intent to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia to a third country,” his lawyers said last week in a filing, adding that he could face “persecution or torture if removed directly to various other countries,” including Libya, South Sudan and Eritrea, which are notorious for human rights abuses.
Meanwhile, new allegations made in court filings days earlier could prove difficult for the court to distinguish in its consideration of the other issues.
Last week, Abrego Garcia alleged in a filing that he was severely beaten and psychologically tortured in El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, CECOT, when he was detained there earlier this year.
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Adding to the complexity of the matter is the separate criminal case playing out in Tennessee.
The federal judge overseeing that case on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to comply with rules prohibiting Justice Department and DHS officials from making any public statements about Abrego Garcia that could potentially prejudice a jury or impact the integrity of the court proceedings, after his attorneys accused administration officials of months of “extensive and inflammatory extrajudicial comments” against their client that threatened to prejudice his right to a fair trial.
“Thus far, the government’s unabated public disparagement of [Abrego] has far outpaced its ability to muster actual evidence, notwithstanding its extraordinary efforts to conjure up such evidence,” they wrote, warning that such statements could complicate efforts to seat an impartial jury in the Middle District of Tennessee, where his trial is set to take place.
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Next steps
It remains to be seen what Xinis will do in Abrego Garcia’s civil case, especially as the criminal case in Tennessee proceeds.
But her frustration with the Trump administration has been clear in earlier proceedings. For months, Xinis struggled to obtain answers from Trump administration officials on Abrego Garcia’s status in El Salvador, as well as what, if any, efforts the Trump government had taken to comply with her order to facilitate his return to the U.S., and at one time suggested she could move to open possible contempt proceedings against the administration.
In May, Xinis sparred with the Justice Department lawyers for more than two hours over their lack of candor and compliance with the discovery process and the deadlines set by the court. It was the last public status hearing she presided over before the administration returned Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil.
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During that hearing, Judge Xinis rebuked the Justice Department for attempting to invoke the state secrets privilege via a footnote that referenced a filing in a separate federal court case, before a different federal judge.
She also excoriated the lack of compliance from Trump administration officials, and attempts to press the administration for answers, which she described as beating a “frustrated and dead horse.”
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