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Trump White House Mocks Abrego Garcia—and Provides 'More Evidence of Contempt' of Court
"Whoever thought this was cute at the time may be less giddy when this becomes evidence of intent to disobey a court order," said one legal expert of a social media post from the White House.
Apr 18, 2025
The White House's public response on Friday to an image of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who the Trump administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador last month, was to mock the migrant and the U.S. senator who successfully urged Salvadoran President Nayim Bukele to allow a visit with him—and critics said officials may come to regret that decision.
"I suspect this is going to show up in a variety of court pleadings," said former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, who is now a law professor. "Whoever thought this was cute at the time may be less giddy when this becomes evidence of intent to disobey a court order."
White Vance was among those who responded to a social media post from the White House's official account on the platform X, in which it displayed the New York Times cover story featuring an image of Abrego Garcia and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) at their meeting on Thursday.
The story headline read, "Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador"—but the White House crossed out the word "wrongly," replaced "Maryland Man" with "MS-13 Illegal Alien," and scrawled, "who's never coming back" on the article about the father and sheet metal worker.
The digital graffiti was shared with the White House's 1.6 million followers even though, as software engineer and writer Lakshya Jain said, "the White House admitted in court that they deported the wrong guy."
Journalist David Leavitt added that the White House had given a federal court "more evidence of contempt," two days after Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. warned that there was "probable cause... to find the government in criminal contempt"—punishable by fines or prison time.
Boasberg ordered the administration last month to turn around two planes that were carrying migrants to El Salvador to be imprisoned at Bukele's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) under a $6 million deal. The White House disobeyed the order.
The administration has also flouted the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous ruling last week that found the White House must facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. Officials have admitted he was sent to El Salvador due to an "administrative error." Although officials including Vice President JD Vance have called him a "convicted" gang member and Bukele repeatedly called him a "terrorist" in the White House earlier this week, Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of any crimes. He was also protected by a 2019 court order which found he had a credible fear of persecution if he were deported to El Salvador.
Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake said that by saying Abrego Garcia is "never coming back," the White House was "basically taunting" the Supreme Court.
Attorney Aaron Regunberg added that White House officials were "explicitly declaring they will violate a unanimous Supreme Court order," and reminded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of his earlier remarks that such defiance from President Donald Trump would trigger "extraordinary action."
"So... where the fuck are you?" asked Regunberg Schumer.
At a press conference following his return to the U.S., flanked by Abrego Garcia's wife, Van Hollen—who was widely praised this week for taking concrete action to advocate for his constituent—on Friday accused the Trump administration of "lying about this case from the beginning."
"They've been trying to change the subject from the beginning," said Van Hollen. "As I've said, and the courts have said—from the Supreme Court to the 4th Circuit, to the District Court—what this is about is adhering to the Constitution, to the right of due process. And that's why we say: 'Bring Kilmar home,' so he can be afforded his rights under the Constitution. That's what this is about."
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'Lawless': Trump DOJ Defies Supreme Court Order for Return of Man Sent to Salvadoran Prison
"I'm not asking for state secrets," said a federal judge as lawyers for the White House refused to provide information about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Apr 11, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision on Thursday was clear: The Trump administration was ordered to "facilitate" the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident with no criminal record who was among hundreds of migrants rounded up in recent weeks and sent to an El Salvador prison.
But lawyers for President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday insisted they needed more time to "review" the high court's ruling and refused to provide details on when and how they would ensure Abrego Garcia was returned to his family in Maryland.
Drew Ensign, one attorney representing the Trump administration, argued at a hearing Friday afternoon with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland over the court-ordered requirement that the government "share what it can concerning the steps it has taken" to return Abrego Garcia.
The hearing had been previously scheduled before the Supreme Court handed down its ruling, and went ahead as planned despite the DOJ's request on Friday morning for Xinis to postpone it till next Wednesday.
"Defendants are unable to provide the information requested by the court on the impracticable deadline set by the court hours after the Supreme Court issued its order," wrote the DOJ lawyers in a filing on Friday morning, striking an aggressive tone similar to the one the government displayed in the hearing later.
Immigration attorney Eric Lee said the filing displayed "a lawless government."
Xinis responded to the request by giving the lawyers until 11:30 am—a two-hour extension of the previous deadline—to submit a written declaration of steps the administration is taking for Abrego Garcia, whom they have said was sent to El Salvador due to an "administrative error," claiming that his fate is out of the United States' control.
But she urged the lawyers to keep in mind that the "act of sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was wholly illegal from the moment it happened."
At the hearing, she clashed further with Ensign.
The attorney said again that the administration is "not yet prepared to share" more information about Abrego Garcia.
"I'm not asking for state secrets," she replied, demanding "roughly a dozen times," according to The New York Times, that Ensign provide information about the man's exact whereabouts and plans for his return. "Is anyone moving with any kind of speed to get to the bottom of this so I can get an answer?"
Ensign confirmed that the government intends to comply with the Supreme Court's order before the hearing ended after less than half an hour. Xinis ordered the DOJ to provide daily updates about its progress in securing his release.
The White House and the Republican Party have attacked the judiciary numerous times in recent weeks, with calls to impeach judges who have ruled against Trump's agenda—including U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who issued a nationwide restraining order against the president's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to expel suspected gang members to El Salvador.
Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller is among the officials who have pushed the idea that federal judges, in demanding that Trump follow constitutional law, are interfering in "foreign affairs."
The Supreme Court included in its ruling a directive for Xinis to proceed with "due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs," leading Miller to suggest that the White House is still under no obligation to return Abrego Garcia.
"If the United States government is paying El Salvador to imprison people on its behalf," said Andrea R. Flores, vice president of FWD.us, "there should be absolutely no 'foreign affairs' reason that they cannot ask their contractor, El Salvador, to return Kilmer Abrego Garcia immediately."
Note: This article has been corrected to reflect the Supreme Court's order for the U.S. to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
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Outcry as White House Admits to Sending Maryland Man to El Salvador Prison 'In Error'
"If Trump can disappear Abrego Garcia, he can disappear you," warned one advocate. "This is why due process matters. Without it, America slides into dictatorship."
Apr 01, 2025
"This is the precedent Trump needs to send you to a concentration camp," said one advocate for due process rights as President Donald Trump's administration claimed it had made an "administrative error" in sending a Maryland father to a prison in his home country of El Salvador—leaving the federal government with no way of bringing him back to his children and wife, a U.S. citizen.
In a court filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, an acting field office director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Robert L. Cerna, told Judge Paula Xinis that the removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on March 15 "was in error." Abrego Garcia was one of hundreds of people rounded up by the Trump administration and sent to a "Terrorism Confinement Center" in El Salvador, with the White House invoking the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II and claiming many were members of gangs including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
Cerna's filing reveals the result of a mass expulsion operation in which hundreds of people were afforded no due process rights in violation of the U.S. Constitution: At least one person with legal protected status in the United States who was not convicted of a crime is now imprisoned in a country where a U.S. federal court had previously found he could face persecution and torture.
As Joshua Eakle of Project Liberal warned, Abrego Garcia's detention and the administration's claim that it can do nothing to help him also creates precedent for Trump to do the same to anyone else it sees fit to target.
"This is how it starts. You must pay attention," said Eakle. "If Trump can disappear Abrego Garcia, he can disappear you. If Trump can strip his rights with no accountability, he can do it to anyone. This is why due process matters. Without it, America slides into dictatorship."
As the news spread of Abrego Garcia's mistaken expulsion, Vice President JD Vance "smeared him as a 'convicted gang member,'" claiming to cite the court filing from Monday, and accused podcast host Jon Favreau of having sympathy for "gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize."
Cerna's filing states that Abrego Garcia was denied bond in 2019 because "the evidence show[ed] that he is a verified member of [Mara Salvatrucha] ('MS-13')]" and therefore posed a danger to the community." As Kyle Cheney wrote at Politico, the accusation was "sharply contested" by Abrego Garcia and "credited to information gleaned from a confidential informant."
"That's not a conviction," said Cheney.
The 2019 court filing regarding the bond denial notes that Abrego Garcia "has no criminal conviction" and that the government erroneously stated at the time that Abrego Garcia was "detained in connection to a murder investigation."
Further, noted Cheney, the court at the time found that Abrego Garcia was likely a member of MS-13, but that he had a credible fear of persecution in his home country of El Salvador and should not be deported there—or expelled via an operation like Trump's mass expulsion campaign, in which those sent overseas have not been afforded due process.
Vance's claim that Abrego Garcia is a "convicted gang member" was "a lie," said Krystal Ball of the online news show "Breaking Points."
"But JD's comment reveals his deportation was not really a 'mistake,'" she said. "They put whoever they could round up on those planes without regard for guilt, innocence, immigration status, or court orders. If this man can be permanently disappeared into a foreign dungeon, anyone can."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council said it was "shocking that the vice president of the United States would so callously, and so falsely, accuse someone of being a convicted gang member. It's especially bad when his own administration just admitted to illegally deporting that person due to 'administrative error.'"
Trump's Justice Department is now urging Xinis to reject a petition filed by Abrego Garcia's attorneys to secure his return to the U.S., saying that since the Maryland resident is now in custody in his home country, the administration and the court system can't force El Salvador to return him.
"People should go to prison over this," said Paul Blest, a reporter for More Perfect Union.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for United Farm Workers, suggested the Trump administration is now refusing to push for Abrego Garcia or other potentially innocent people who have been expelled from the U.S. "because then they will be able to speak for themselves and the full extent of this atrocity will become clear."
Shannon Watts, founder of the gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action, called on the Democratic Party to ensure the administration can't ignore the demand for Abrego Garcia's release.
"I don't care what the polls say about immigration, this is a legal assault on the Constitution and humanity," said Watts. "Democratic leaders must publicly pressure the Trump administration to rescue Kilmar Abrego Garcia."
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