Maryland lawmakers, community react as Supreme Court halts man's return from mistaken deportation

Maryland lawmakers are weighing in on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to halt a lower court's order to bring back a man from Maryland who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

The decision by the nation's highest court means Kilmar Abrego Garcia must stay in El Salvador for now. 

He was arrested by ICE agents in March after leaving his sheet metal apprenticeship in Baltimore. He was first taken to Baltimore City, then to Louisiana and Texas, before the Trump Administration flew him to the violent CECOT prison in El Salvador. 

Last week, a federal judge in Maryland ordered Abrego Garcia to be returned to the United States by 11:59 p.m. Monday. 

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris reacts

At a telephone Town Hall Monday night, Representative Andy Harris, the lone Republican in the Maryland delegation, praised the decision. 

"We don't know all the specifics, but I think the Administration erred on the side of caution. I think they made the right decision," Harris said of the Trump Administration's vigorous appeals. 

"It will get sorted out in the courts," Harris said. 

In court Friday, the government did not present any evidence that Abrego Garcia is a member of a gang, but Harris doubled down on claims by the White House press secretary and U.S. Attorney General that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.

"We will deport anyone who is a member of MS-13," he said at his town hall. 

"You can't just go around grabbing people"

Former prosecutor turned congressman Glenn Ivey spoke to WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren Monday and blasted the Trump administration for failing to allow Abrego Garcia "his day in court."

"I don't think I've ever seen a scenario where the Department of Justice acknowledges they've made a mistake but then says there's nothing they can do to fix it," Rep. Ivey said. "It should send a message, I hope, to the Trump administration that you can't just go around grabbing people. Once you realize you've made a mistake, don't double down on it. Back up and do it the right way."

Ivey said the way the Trump administration has handled the case "smells bad."

"It really suggests that they were trying to get him out of there before they had to go before a judge and justify what they had done," he said. 

Ivey pointed out the lack of evidence the government provided at the District Court hearing in Greenbelt on Friday. 

"There was a put-up or shut up moment in court on Friday," Ivey told Hellgren. "They didn't put up anything."

Maryland judge ordered the return 

Maryland federal judge Paula Xinis heard arguments in the case Friday, where the government did not present any evidence that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.

"The plaintiff should not have been removed. That is not in dispute," the government's attorney Erez Reuveni said.

Reuveni was later put on administrative leave. 

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi told Fox News Sunday, "I issued a memo that you are to vigorously advocate on behalf of the United States. Our client in this matter was Homeland Security. He did not argue. He shouldn't have taken the case. He shouldn't have argued it if that's what he was going to do. He's on administrative leave now, but yes, as lawyers, you have to vigorously argue on behalf of your client."

Judge Xinis ruled Sunday that the mistaken deportation was a "grievous error." 

She said, "There were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal.… His detention appears wholly lawless."

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision Monday morning and said, "Abrego Garcia has no criminal history, in this country or anywhere else… and… is a gainfully employed family man who lives a law abiding and productive life."

Wife has a message for President Trump

Before the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, issued a statement through the advocacy group CASA, where she addressed President Trump directly.

"I ask again that both President Trump and [Salvadoran] President Bukele stop attempting any further delays. They need to follow the court's order NOW. My children are waiting to be reunited with their father tonight," she said. 

What's next? 

Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered all sides to submit further arguments by 5 p.m. Tuesday. 

Right now, Abrego Garcia continues to be detained in El Salvador. 

Maryland ties 

Abrego Garcia worked as a sheet metal apprentice in Baltimore. His union leader, Michael Coleman, told WJZ, "We are unified for one purpose and that is to bring brother Kilmar back home where he belongs with his family."

He first entered the United States illegally as a teenager and lived with his brother, a U.S. citizen.

An immigration judge in Baltimore heard his case in 2019, after he was arrested outside a Home Depot. The judge considered government allegations Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 but ultimately ruled he would be subjected to danger if sent back to El Salvador and ordered that he should not be returned to that country. In her most recent ruling, Judge Xinis wrote, "DHS relied principally on a singular, unsubstantiated allegation that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13." She cited, "Nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13's 'Western' clique in New York—a place he has never lived."

Abrego Garcia and his wife were married in Howard County as the 2019 case moved through the court system, according to court records. 

He lived in Beltsville at the time of his arrest last month and was taken into custody without a warrant near the IKEA in Prince George's County in what the government called an "administrative error" and an "oversight" in court documents. 

Last week, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, criticized the Trump administration over its handling of the case. "We know when you just look at a person and based on their looks and think that person is less than, that's how you end up with slavery, that's how you end up with the Holocaust and they are going down a very, very dangerous road, a road that we should not be talking about going down in 2025," Mayor Brandon Scott said at a news conference at City Hall. "And everybody, Republican or Democrat, should be concerned that people who were not supposed to be put on those planes and sent out of this country had that happen to them. Period."