Inset: Kilmar Abrego Garcia in an undated photo (CASA). Background: President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo/Alex Brandon).
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia are refusing to wave the white flag, urging a federal judge on Sunday to hold the Trump administration in contempt for allegedly orchestrating “an elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage” the erroneously deported Maryland father — only to haul him back last week to face criminal charges, his attorneys say.
“Though Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is, at long last, back in the United States following his illegal removal, to characterize the Government as having ‘complied with the court’s order’ is pure farce,” wrote Abrego Garcia’s legal team in a five-page filing.
“The Government flouted rather than followed the orders of this Court and the United States Supreme Court,” the lawyers blasted.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are seeking contempt sanctions in Maryland, where his family filed a federal lawsuit in March to bring the legally protected dad back to the U.S. after he was shipped off on March 15. They say the Trump administration showed how easy it was for Abrego Garcia to be brought back home, calling it the “latest act of contempt” from government officials, according to Sunday’s filing, after months of alleged stonewalling.
“The Government arranged for Abrego Garcia’s return, not to Maryland in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive … but rather to Tennessee so that he could be charged with a crime in a case that the Government only developed while it was under threat of sanctions,” his lawyers said. “The Government’s convenient ability to return Abrego Garcia in time for a press conference unveiling his indictment puts the lie to its previously feigned powerlessness to comply with this Court’s injunction.”
Abrego Garcia was transported to the U.S. on Friday after the Trump administration claimed for months that the government had its hands tied and couldn’t do anything to get him back. A legally protected Maryland resident, Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious work prison in El Salvador without due process. His attorneys accused Homeland Security and DOJ officials of defying a federal judge and the U.S. Supreme Court by refusing to provide any information regarding what was being done to “facilitate” his return.
A federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Abrego Garcia on the criminal charges last month. His indictment alleges that from 2016 to 2025, Abrego Garcia “conspired to bring undocumented aliens to the United States from countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and elsewhere, ultimately passing through Mexico before crossing into Texas.” Abrego Garcia and several other alleged coconspirators are accused of transporting “thousands of undocumented aliens into the U.S., “many of whom” were allegedly members of the MS-13 gang.
Asked by reporters on Friday why Abrego Garcia was only now being indicted — nearly three years after the traffic stop that got him on authorities’ radar — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the charges were based on “new facts” that had come to light since Abrego Garcia’s removal became a political flashpoint.
President Donald Trump told NBC News on Saturday he had no role in bringing Abrego Garcia back, saying: “That wasn’t my decision.”
Abrego Garcia’s return comes after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, a Barack Obama appointee, gave his attorneys permission to pursue sanctions. Xinis asked for an official request by June 11.
“Over the past two months, the executive branch has acted not just in contempt of multiple court orders but with open defiance towards its coequal branch of government, the judiciary,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers charged Sunday.
“Two things are now crystal clear,” they said. “First, the Government has always had the ability to return Abrego Garcia, but it has simply refused to do so. Second, the Government has conducted a determined stalling campaign to stave off contempt sanctions long enough to concoct a politically face-saving exit from its own predicament.”
Abrego Garcia’s legal team told the court that “at a minimum,” the civil case needs to remain live to “address the status of Abrego Garcia” given the government’s “continuing threat of removal,” per the Sunday filing.
“Even if Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States resolved every claim (it does not), this Court still retains jurisdiction to find contempt and impose sanctions,” the lawyers said. “Until the Government is held accountable for its blatant, willful, and persistent violations of court orders at excruciating cost to Abrego Garcia and his family, this case is not over.”
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
