Let me begin with one observation — the Opinion issued on April 6, 2025, by District of Maryland District Judge Xinis is an over-the-top diatribe that parrots every claim made by the advocates for Hilmar Abrego Garcia as if they were truths etched in stone tablets. She recites the allegations set forth in the Complaint as if they have been litigated and resolved, ignoring the fact that there is much in the Complaint that is contrary to the VERY LIMITED EVIDENCE that was before her.
She held a hearing on April 4, 2025, and at the conclusion of the hearing she granted the plaintiffs’ motion for injunctive relief. The Opinion explaining her decision was published two days later.
But the hearing took place one day after District Judge Boasberg in D.C., 39 miles away, held a very contentious hearing in the matter involving the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and removal of a large number of members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminal gang based in Venezuela, seemingly in violation of his prior injunction. During the TdA hearing, Judge Boasberg’s comments certainly suggested he thought the Administration has intentionally violated his order — later determined to have been made without jurisdiction — that everyone being removed pursuant to the proclamation needed to be returned to the United States.
Judge Xinis is presiding over a case where the Administration admitted that Abrego Garcia was placed on one of those planes — not under the AEA proclamation but because he was an illegal alien with a final Order of Removal — due to an “administrative error.” In 2019 an Immigration Judge had granted Abrego Garcia “Withholding of Removal” that prevented him from being deported back to his home country, El Salvador. Judge Xinis had ORDERED the Administration to “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States —whatever that means — setting the deadline for Monday, April 7, at 11:59 pm.
Both Tren de Aragua and MS-13 — the gang affiliation of Abrego Garcia, which is not in serious doubt as set forth herein — have been declared “terrorist organizations” by the Trump Administration pursuant to a federal statute giving it the authority to do so, whether district judges like it or not.
There is nothing about the process leading to Hilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to El Salvador that is hard to understand. One error was made – but the nature of that error is such that events that predated his deportation back to El Salvador have made it harmless. Below is the entire saga in story-book form – details coming from various police and court records — followed by an explanation of the very simple solution along with the political reason why this simple solution is turning out to be so difficult to put in place.
Abrego Garcia, along with three others, were detained by Maryland local police on March 28, 2019. One detective immediately recognized one of the four as an MS-13 member — “Bimbo” — known to him from previous contacts. That individual had been encountered multiple times by the “Prince Georges County Gang Unit MS-13 Intelligence Squad.” The MS-13 problem is so bad they have an entire Gang Unit with its own Intelligence Squad dedicated to identifying and investigating MS-13 members. “Bimbo” has an extensive criminal record with multiple convictions.
A second individual – not confirmed as an MS-13 member – had tattoos indicative of Hispanic gang membership. Eyes, ears, and mouths covered by skulls which are meant to emphasize “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” and communicate the need to stay silent. A past proven and reliable source of information identified this second person as an MS-13 member with the gang name of “Maniaco.” This individual also had a calf tattoo known to represent high level MS-13 members.
Abrego Garcia was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat – images of a bull’s head with horns is indicative of an MS-13 member in good standing. The same source of information identified Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 member with the gang name “Chele”
Of interest, however, is that the fourth individual was not known to the police or the source of information as an MS-13 member. If, as has been suggested, this source of information was not reliable and had fabricated the information about Abrego Garcia being a member of MS-13, why did he not fabricate information about the 4th individual who, according to the report, was released at the scene.
All of those details come from the Maryland local police who encountered the four men.
Abergo Garcia freely admitted to being a Salvadoran citizen in the United States illegally, and he was turned over to the custody by ICE — there is an ICE Form I-213 dated March 28, 2019, completed the same evening by two ICE agents. On March 29 he was given a Notice to Appear at a Removal Hearing, and was detained in custody by DHS pending that hearing. The I-213 states it was the Prince Georges County Police Gang Unit who first encountered the four when they were “detained in connection with a murder investigation.” This wasn’t a random police contact – it was the Gang Unit contacting known gang members. It doesn’t say they were suspects in a murder, only that they were detained in connection with an investigation. The I-213 says in multiple locations that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member – based on the information given to ICE by the local police Gang Unit dedicated to MS-13.
Abrego Garcia was denied bond after a hearing on April 24, 2019. In the written Memorandum dated May 22, 2019, documenting the denial of the motion, the Immigration Judge stated:
“[T]he determination that the Respondent is a gang member appears to be trustworthy and is supported by other evidence in the record, namely, information contained in the Gang Field Interview Sheet…. [T]he fact that a “past, proven, and reliable source of information” verified [Abrego Garcia’s] gang membership, rank, and gang name is sufficient to support that the Respondent is a gang member….”
The “determination” was made by the Maryland police and adopted by ICE. These are not casual decisions made by the flip of a coin. Accurately identifying gang affiliations is a paramount concern when it comes to arrest/detention/ incarceration. Having members of rival and hostile gangs housed together is an invitation to widespread violence. So accurately determining gang affiliation is the reason why police have gang unit “Intelligence Squads.” To dismiss this determination — as Judge Xinis does in almost comical fashion in her April 6 Opinion for this poor “Maryland Man” — only exposes ignorance as to how and why these determinations are made.
The Board of Immigration Appeals, in a written decision December 19, 2019, adopted and affirmed the Immigration Judge’s decision denying bond to Abrego Garcia on the basis of his status as an MS-13 member.
“[Abrego-Garcia] argues that the Immigration Judge clearly erred in determining that is a verified member of MS-13 because there is no reliable evidence in the record to support such a finding…. We adopt and affirm the Immigration Judge’s danger ruling…. [T]he immigration judge appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent in determining that he has not demonstrated that he is not a danger to property or persons.”
“Gang affiliation” is not a “crime.” So the claim that Abrego Garcia has never been charged with a crime where his gang affiliation was “proven” in court is meaningless. I suspect the Immigration Judge who made the initial FACTUAL FINDING, and the Board of Appeals panel who affirmed that “FACTUAL FINDING” have reviewed far more MS-13 determinations made in this fashion than has Judge Xinis from the district court bench.
Between his arrest and the denial of his bond appeal, Abrego Garcia filed an application for relief from the Order of Removal under three separate provisions of immigration law. First, he asked for asylum, which would have allowed him to lawfully remain in the United States if granted. Second, he asked for protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), a U.N. convention that is limited to fear with regard to the government of the country where the alien would otherwise be removed. The Immigration Judge who conducted the hearing denied both his asylum claim and his CAT claim.
But he made a third claim asking for “Withholding of Removal” which prevents deportation back to the alien’s home country if the alien can show a “well-founded fear of persecution” based on religion, ethnicity, etc. One of the classifications recognized in the statute is fear of persecution based on membership in a “particular social group.”
With several months to rehearse the story, Abrego Garcia testified to an almost comical claim that his family’s business – making and selling pupusas from the kitchen of their house (“everyone in town knew to get their pupusa from Pupuseria Cecelia”) – was extorted by a El Salvadoran gang, Barrio 18. The family was given the choice to either pay the extortion on the pupusa sales or the gang would take their son(s) and force them to join the gang. Initially the demand was for Abrego-Garcia’s older brother to join so the family arranged for the older brother to leave for the U.S. Agrego Garcia claimed the family moved from one neighborhood in the capitol San Salvador to another neighborhood 10 minutes away by car. But the gang tracked them down and continued to demand payment or it would force Abrego Garcia — then about 16 — to join. The family moved again, this time 15 minutes farther away by car – but Barrio 18 would just not be denied. They would either have their pupuseria money or Abrego Garcia would join their gang. In response, the family sent him to the U.S. as well.
If you don’t know, pupusas are a stuffed handheld pancake-like street food that are the national dish of El Salvador. Street venders are ubiquitous in Salvadoran towns. The idea that one family’s kitchen would be “the place” to get pupusas is just idiotic beyond belief. It would be like saying “Everyone on Staten Island knew to get their cheesesteak sandwiches at Betty Smith’s house.”
Abrego Garcia told the Immigration Judge in 2019 that he feared being attacked and/or killed by Barrio 18 if he were to be returned to El Salvador – seven years after he left. The judge accepted the story and granted him “Withholding of Removal” – WOR – preventing him from being deported to El Salvador. He could be sent anywhere else, just not back to his home country.
Whether the judge believed the story or not, granting WOR is a backdoor way to get around the one-year limit on applying for asylum – and everyone in the business knows that. That is why ridiculous stories like the one told by Abrego Garcia are invented. Entering an order that a Salvadoran national can’t be sent back to El Salvador creates a significant complication in deporting him at all because a third country needs to agree to take him — a member of MS-13 as determined by the U.S. government.
On the same day he was granted WOR, it appears that he was released from detention. There doesn’t seem to be any document that explains the rationale for releasing Abrego Garcia given that his status as an MS-13 member was used to detain him in the first instance, and that that decision was later affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
But, informed speculation based on events and the statutes for holding him in custody suggests that a rather simple explanation is likely. Under the statutes governing detention pending deportation, there is a 90 day period within which an alien is to be removed after a final Order of Removal is granted.
Title 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1231(a)(1)(A) states that an alien subject to an Order of Removal shall be removed within 90 days, and shall remain detained during that period.
That period may be extended an additional 90 days if the alien fails to make a “timely application in good faith for travel” or otherwise acts in ways to prevent his removal. He shall remain in custody during that second 90 day period.
There are some provisions in this statute for keeping certain specific classes of individuals in detention until removal is arranged. But, outside those narrow classes the statute provides for release from detention when removal within the statutory period — 6 months total — cannot be accomplished.
When Abrego Garcia was granted WOR to El Salvador, he had been in custody for almost 6 months after his Order of Removal was final. The timing of his release in relationship to that 6 month period, is the best explanation for his release from detention. In Zadvydas v. Davis the Supreme Court held in 2001 that when the date of removal is not “reasonably foreseeable”, continued detention of an alien subject to removal was unconstitutional. So, for Abrego Garcia, indefinite detention while trying to arrange for his removal to a country other than El Salvador, was not an option. After Joe Biden took office, the Biden DOJ had no interest in deporting anyone. That explains why Abrego Garcia was able to “build a life as a Maryland Dad” while being an illegal alien subject to removal for the past 4 years.
There is one more important fact to consider in terms of the WOR with regard to Abrego Garcia, as well as the determination that he is a member of MS-13. In the Complaint filed by his attorneys in the District of Maryland, there is the following allegations in Paragraph 53, at p. 11-12:
The evening after his arrest, [Abrego Garcia’s wife] received a call from Plaintiff Abrego Garcia…. During that conversation, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia informed [his wife] that he was being questioned about gang affiliations. He repeatedly informed his interviewers that he was never a gang member and had no gang affiliations. He was shown several photos where he appeared in public, and asked about other people in those photos, but was unable to provide any information on them, as he did not know them or anything about them.”
So on March 14, 2025, ICE already possessed photographs of him with other individuals in public places and asked him for information about the people he was with while showing him the photographs?
Who thinks those pictures were taken at gatherings of ex-pat Salvadorans to discuss the happenings back in the home country while celebrating their shared cultural heritage?
Most readers here with experience in law enforcement will recognize this as being 100% consistent with innumerable accounts of criminal investigations where law enforcement is trying to gather additional intelligence on individuals of interest. When interviewing a documented MS-13 member who is an illegal alien from El Salvador, who are the subjects most likely to be in the photographs with Abrego Garcia that ICE would in interested in?
Based on experience, what is the most likely response to be given by an MS-13 member when shown photographs of himself with other MS-13 members, and asked for information about the others in the photos — “I don’t know anything about those people”??
Exactly.
The idea that Abrego Garcia’s A-File — all illegal aliens who go through removal have an A-File — only had the 2019 reports as evidence of his MS-13 membership is laughable. The top enforcement priority for ICE staring January 21 was removal of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 members who had come into the country illegally. Every ICE Office would have prioritized their targets based on their own files. They didn’t just pick Abrego Garcia’s name out of a hat. The fact that Prince Georges County has an MS-13 Gang Unit is highly suggestive of the fact that Prince Georges County has an MS-13 gang problem.
Now lets turn to the issue of how to correct the problem of sending Abrego Garcia to the one country on the planet he could not be sent to with the WOR in place.
Full Summary of the Hilmar Abrego Garcia Deportation Case and Judge Xinis’s April 6 Opinion
I. Judicial Grandstanding: Xinis’s April 6 Opinion
Judge Paula Xinis, District of Maryland, issued an opinion that reads less like a judicial ruling and more like an ACLU press release. She adopts every claim in Abrego Garcia’s complaint as if it were gospel, despite “VERY LIMITED EVIDENCE” before her. The April 4 hearing lasted one day; two days later, she ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Garcia’s return by April 7 at 11:59 pm — language as vague as it is presumptuous.
II. Dueling Courtrooms: Judge Boasberg, 39 Miles Away
Just one day before Xinis’s hearing, Judge James Boasberg in D.C. held a contentious session over the mass deportation of Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members. He implied the Administration violated his injunction — later determined to be issued without jurisdiction — and insisted deportees needed to be returned to the U.S. Boasberg’s case was under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA); Abrego Garcia’s deportation was not. He was removed due to a final Order of Removal stemming from his illegal status and gang ties.
III. The Original 2019 Arrest: Four Men, One Known as “Bimbo”
March 28, 2019: Abrego Garcia and three others were detained by local Maryland police.
One, “Bimbo,” was a known MS-13 member with multiple convictions, identified by the Prince George’s County Gang Unit MS-13 Intelligence Squad.
A second individual had gang tattoos: skulls over eyes, ears, mouths — symbols of silence. Identified by a proven, reliable source as “Maniaco,” also an MS-13 member.
Abrego wore a Chicago Bulls hat, interpreted by the source as symbolic of MS-13 status. He was ID’d as “Chele,” a member of MS-13.
The fourth man was neither identified as MS-13 nor charged — and was released. A fabricated story would likely have named all four. The fact that one wasn’t supports the reliability of the source.
IV. The Evidence Trail: ICE Form I-213, Gang Unit Reports
Abrego admitted being in the U.S. illegally.
ICE took custody; completed Form I-213 that same night.
He was served a Notice to Appear the next day.
The I-213 clearly states the group was “detained in connection with a murder investigation.”
The form repeatedly identifies Garcia as an MS-13 member — based on Gang Unit intel.
V. ⚖️ Immigration Proceedings: Denied Bond and WOR Twist
A. Bond Denial (April 24 & May 22, 2019):
The Immigration Judge wrote:
The BIA affirmed:
“Gang affiliation” is not a chargeable crime, but in detention and deportation contexts, it’s a crucial public safety factor.
B. Relief Requests:
Abrego sought:
Asylum — denied.
CAT protection — denied.
Withholding of Removal (WOR) — granted, based on an almost laughable narrative.
VI. The Pupusa Fable: Barrio 18 vs. Pupuseria Cecelia
Abrego claimed his family’s pupusa business was targeted for extortion by Barrio 18. The gang allegedly demanded either:
Extortion payments, or
His or his brother’s forced membership.
They moved 10–15 minutes away repeatedly, but the gang kept finding them. Eventually, Abrego was sent to the U.S.
The judge granted WOR based on this — though the tale resembles something out of a Salvadoran telenovela.
VII. Why Was He Released?
WOR to El Salvador meant he couldn’t be deported there. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(1)(A), DHS has 90 days to deport after a final removal order, extendable another 90 days for non-cooperation. After 6 months, if no deportation is “reasonably foreseeable,” Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) bars indefinite detention. He was released when that clock ran out.
Under the Biden DOJ, no effort was made to deport him elsewhere — hence his ability to “build a life as a Maryland Dad.”
VIII. 2025 Arrest: The Photo Lineup
According to his wife’s testimony in the Complaint, Paragraph 53:
Law enforcement veterans recognize this for what it is: gang intel gathering. “I don’t know those people” is the textbook denial response from gang members shown photos with other members.
IX. ️ The A-File & MS-13 Prioritization
Garcia’s A-File — maintained by ICE — didn’t just contain 2019 evidence. Post-January 21 (Trump’s renewed enforcement), MS-13 members were top deportation priorities. He wasn’t selected at random. Prince George’s County has its own MS-13 Gang Unit — not because they’re bored, but because the problem is real.
X. Fixing the WOR Problem: Legal Mechanism
A. Reopening WOR:
Under 8 CFR, WOR is not permanent. It can be revoked if:
Country conditions change, or
The alien becomes a danger to U.S. national security, per 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(B)(iv).
Designation of MS-13 as a terrorist org by the Trump Administration triggers this exemption.
B. Legal Standard:
Standard is “reasonable grounds to believe”, not “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Mirrors probable cause — not a full evidentiary burden.
XI. How the Hearing Can Happen — Remotely
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(2) and 8 CFR § 1003.25(c):
Immigration Judges may hold hearings via video or teleconference.
For “credible fear” reviews, no consent from the alien is needed.
Collateral estoppel applies — previous gang finding bars re-litigation.
Therefore, his presence in the U.S. is not required for the motion to proceed.
XII. The Final Obstacle: Political Ego
The Trump Administration refuses to appear obedient to Judge Xinis. It is likely to resolve this through the Executive process, bypassing her entirely.
Congress stripped Article III courts of jurisdiction over immigration courts.
Xinis has no authority to interfere.
The DOJ can file a motion to reopen, revoke WOR, and finalize deportation without conceding anything to her.
The fix is coming — but it will be done on the Executive’s terms, not as compliance with a judicial tantrum.
TL;DR:
Judge Xinis issued a legally dubious opinion to force the U.S. government to return an MS-13 member based on flawed reasoning, while ignoring the existing legal mechanisms that allow the Trump administration to fix the situation — without letting activist judges rewrite immigration law from the bench.
“Wizzer” White proved beond doubt 60 years ago that judges ignore: facts, law, Stare Decisis, un emotional logic! Judges rule based on their politics!
For those<60 “Wizzer” is why UNIPARTY BORKED Bork! He would have been polor opposite of “Wizzer”.
I hope its clear that i would have agreed with Bork as much as i disagreed with Wizzer! A an almost uiversal rule UNIPARTY is not only bad but very bad!s
Wherever cartels take hold people in power end up threatened, p-aid off or dead.
We are starting to see this among a few judges here.
One judge had a cartel man living on his property.
Another judge, 91 years old, claimed (falsely) that he was targeted for removal solely because he has tats.
This is only going to get worse.
Yup tats so nice of them to brand themselves like cattle for law enforcement. Not this one