One day after a Federal Court asked for details on the status of a man from Maryland who was exploded by mistake in Salvador, the State Department told a judge that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was “alive and secure” but still not on American soil.
“It is my understanding on the basis of the official reports of our embassy in San Salvador that Garcia Garcia is currently detained at the Terrorism Confainment Center in El Salvador,” said Michael Kozak, a senior official of the State Department office, in a declaration submitted on Saturday minutes after the deadline set by the judge.
“He is alive and safe in this installation,” added Kozak. “He is detained in accordance with the sovereign and domestic authority of Salvador.”
This undated photo provided by Casa, an organization for the defense of immigrants, in April 2025, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
House via AP
The Supreme Court had ordered that the US government “facilitates” the return of Abrego Garcia to America.
On Friday, President Donald Trump weighed on the court order while chatting with journalists, saying that he did not know the matter well. However, he reiterated his respect for the Supreme Court, which confirmed the decision of a lower court that the United States government should help to return Abrego Garcia to the United States
“If the Supreme Court said they brought someone, I would do it. I respect the Supreme Court,” he said.
Shortly before the government submitted its first situation report to the Court, the lawyers for Abrego Garcia filed a request for additional compensation and quoted Trump’s comments.
“Yesterday, President Trump confirmed that the United States had the power to facilitate the release of Abrego Garcia in prison and return to the United States,” ABREGO GARCIA lawyers wrote.
In the file, Maryland’s lawyers requested three additional types of help, in particular by ordering the government to show why it should not be detained “due to its non-compliance with the previous orders of the court”.
“The recognition of the President of the United States power to bring ABREGO GARCIA notwithstanding, the Ministry of Justice and other government agencies continue to resist this court and the Supreme Court,” they added.
Lawyers also asked the judge to order the government to provide air transport to Abrego Garcia to return to Maryland and grant him conditional release.
In an order written earlier this week, Judge Paula Xinis of the Maryland District District Court had asked for the daily situation report to respond to the measures, if necessary, the Trump administration took to facilitate the immediate return of Abrego Garcia to the United States and what additional measures that the government will take and when, to facilitate its return.
While the oath of Kozak’s oath answers one of the questions asked by Xinis, the answer did not provide more details on the return of Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia, although he received an order from the 2019 court prohibiting his expulsion in Salvador, where his lawyers claim that he escaped political violence in 2011, was sent to the famous mega-prison of this country in this country following what the government said an “administrative error”, according to the head of the application of American law.
A police officer protects a cell from the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOC) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, April 4, 2025.
Jose Cabezas / Reuters
The Trump administration said that Greo Garcia was a member of the Gang MS-13, that his lawyers and his wife deny, and have argued in legal deposits because because Garcia is no longer in police custody, the courts cannot order him to have returned to the United States or the order of El Salvador to return it.
Xinis ordered the government to help Return Abrego Garcia to the United States, which the Supreme Court then confirmed on Thursday.
“The ordinance correctly obliges the government to” facilitate “the release of Garcia de la Garde in Salvador and to ensure that his case is treated as it would have been if it had been badly sent to El Salvador,” said the unsigned order of the Supreme Court.
