The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny over its efforts to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia out of the United States — despite a Supreme Court order mandating his return.
Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who has lived in the U.S. for over a decade, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year after being falsely linked to the notorious MS-13 gang. The deportation was later acknowledged by the Trump administration as an “administrative error,” yet officials appear determined to dig up new reasons to justify keeping him out of the country for good.
In a recent development, the Justice Department reopened an investigation into a 2022 traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia in Tennessee. According to a report from ABC News, he had been driving a car registered to Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, an Alabama inmate. Abrego Garcia was ticketed for speeding and had eight passengers in the vehicle. He told officers at the time that they were construction workers traveling from Missouri.
Federal investigators have since interviewed Hernandez-Reyes, who claimed he ran a “taxi service” in Baltimore and occasionally hired Abrego Garcia to transport undocumented immigrants from Texas to other parts of the country. He also stated he first met Abrego Garcia in 2015. So far, these statements have not resulted in any criminal charges, but it’s clear the administration is grasping for anything that could block his return.
Legal experts argue that the government’s focus on questionable associations and circumstantial connections raises serious concerns about due process. “This interview seems to be less about justice and more about justification,” said one immigration attorney familiar with the case. “They’re trying to backfill a narrative to make an unlawful deportation appear legitimate.”
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Abrego Garcia’s case is particularly troubling given that he was never charged with a crime and had previously been granted protection from deportation. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that returning him to El Salvador could endanger his life due to threats from the violent Barrio 18 gang. The only alleged gang link against him stemmed from a since-discredited report filed by a Maryland police officer who was later fired. That report failed to provide any concrete evidence tying him to MS-13.
Even President Trump has publicly fumbled the facts of the case. In a recent exchange with ABC News, he doubled down on a photoshopped image that falsely showed gang tattoos on Abrego Garcia’s hands. Despite being debunked by forensic experts, Trump insisted the image was authentic.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that the executive branch must take steps to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., but the Trump administration has pushed back. A court filing last month stated bluntly that Abrego Garcia “will never live” in America again — a move some legal scholars say amounts to open defiance of the judiciary.
Meanwhile, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has called the idea of returning Abrego Garcia “preposterous,” saying his country has no legal obligation to remove individuals the U.S. deems as “terrorists”—even” if the evidence is lacking or fabricated.
Despite Trump’s own claim that he could bring Abrego Garcia home if he wanted to, he has made it clear he has no intention of doing so.
For now, Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains in limbo. He was deported without due process, misidentified as a gang member based on flimsy evidence, and is now at the center of a legal and political battle that shows no signs of slowing down.
