The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

This is not the column I planned to write this week. I have been following President Donald Trump’s executive orders and actions on deportations. Without having done much research, it seemed to me that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador without due process. Instead, as I learned more about the case and read some of the court decisions, I have reached a different conclusion.

Garcia is a Salvadoran man who was recently deported from Maryland to El Salvador. According to court documents, in 2019, he was detained in Maryland after the Prince George’s County Police Department questioned him along with three other Hispanic males about loitering in the parking lot of a Home Depot. While it is not a common practice in Cedar Rapids, Garcia was in the parking lot, hoping to be hired as a day laborer.

One of the other men, Christhyan Hernandez Romero was a known member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13. The Prince George’s County Circuit Court found Hernandez-Romero guilty of being in a gang in 2018. According to the official report, Hernandez-Romero has a lengthy criminal history, including multiple assaults, burglary, and weapons charges.

Garcia and another man were identified as MS-13 members based on gang symbols on their clothing, tattoos, and information from a confidential informant.

Authorities could not confirm that the fourth man had ties to MS-13, so he was released.

Garcia admitted that he had entered the United States illegally in 2012. The Department of Homeland Security report contains some conflicting information. One section of the report claims that he was not in fear of returning to El Salvador, while another section claims that he was. He was offered the chance to speak with a Salvadoran consular officer but declined.

In April 2019, an immigration court found that Garcia was, in fact, a gang member. He appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and they concurred that he was a member of a gang.

In the meantime, Garcia applied for asylum in the United States. A different judge found that Garcia’s family had been harassed by a competing gang, Barrio 18, in El Salvador and that he had received multiple death threats. Asylum-seekers in the United States have one year to apply after entering the country. Since Garcia had been in the country for seven years, he was not eligible.

The judge believed that Garcia’s claim of persecution by Barrio 18 was credible. Instead of granting asylum, the judge granted “withholding of removal” status. This status allowed Garcia to remain in the U.S. and work legally. He could still be deported — just not to El Salvador.

Things changed when Donald Trump took office. Trump signed an executive order declaring MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization, giving the government broad powers to deport gang members. In March, Garcia was picked up by ICE agents and quickly deported to El Salvador, violating the withholding of removal status granted to him in 2019. On April 4, in a hearing before a U.S. District Court, Erez Reuveni, then Acting Deputy Chief of the Office of Immigration Litigation at the Department of Justice, conceded that Garcia should not have been deported to El Salvador. Eleven days later, Reuveni was fired for failing to “zealously advocate on behalf of the United States.”

In the last few weeks, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and three House members have flown to El Salvador to call for Garcia’s release. Van Hollen met with Salvadoran President Ulloa and asked him if there was any evidence that Garcia had committed a crime. Ulloa said, “We have a deal with the U.S. Government. They send people. We host them. They pay. And that’s it.”

The District Court in Maryland and the Supreme Court have both ordered the government to “facilitate” Garcia’s return to the US. Until this week, the administration’s position has been that they could not get him back because it was up to El Salvador. President Trump initially claimed he lacked the power to bring Garcia back. Now he admits he has the power — but refuses to use it.

Initially, I believed that Garcia had not received due process. But after reading the court records, I realized he had his day in court — twice. He entered the U.S. illegally. A court found him to be a member of MS-13. He was granted withholding of removal status, which allowed him to live and work in the U.S. This status did not make him immune to deportation, but it did prevent him from being deported to El Salvador. In early 2025, MS-13 was designated a foreign terrorist organization by executive order. As an MS-13 member, he was deported. The problem is that the destination was the one place the government had agreed not to send him — El Salvador.

The government conceded that deporting Garcia to El Salvador was a mistake. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to “facilitate” his release. President Trump first said that he did not have the power to get him released. Now, he says that he has the power but won’t do it. The real question here is not about due process; it is about the roles of the Supreme Court and the Executive Branch. We can debate immigration policy all day long, but if the Executive Branch can ignore a Supreme Court order with impunity, we are in far deeper trouble than any one case.

David Chung is a Gazette editorial fellow. david.chung@thegazette.com