Trump administration invokes 'state secrets' as lawyers probe Abrego Garcia efforts

Dan Belson, The Baltimore Sun on Apr 22, 2025

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Lawyers representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge for a hearing after they said Justice Department attorneys provided “nothing of substance” in response to requests for information on how the Trump administration is facilitating the mistakenly deported Maryland man’s return.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had not yet scheduled a hearing Tuesday morning after the attorneys’ request, which provided a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes discovery process ordered by the judge after she found that the Trump administration failed to comply with a court order.

The government invoked its “state secret” privilege in 13 sworn responses to Abrego Garcia’s family’s lawyers’ 15 questions about what they were doing to facilitate the Prince George’s County resident’s return from a Salvadoran prison.

The Trump administration, which has publicly said that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” to the U.S., despite Xinis explicitly ordering them to facilitate his return, also claimed that it was doing more than it previously stated in court.

“The State Department has engaged in appropriate diplomatic discussions with El Salvador regarding Abrego Garcia,” the government said in several responses, noting it only started doing so last week after an appeals court issued a stinging condemnation of the Trump administration’s flouting of Xinis’ orders. The government did not provide any more details in its responses, claiming that disclosing such details “at this time could negatively impact any outcome.”

Despite that indication, lawyers for the government largely remained defiant, insisting that they cannot be ordered to “forcibly extract” Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, where he is being held in a Santa Ana prison. He was previously being held in the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison which the Trump administration was paying El Salvador $6 million to use to hold hundreds of people facing deportation from the U.S.

Pressed by Abrego Garcia’s lawyers for names of people who would be involved in such efforts, government lawyers noted that certain immigration officials could become involved “following the success of diplomatic efforts, Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran detention, and, if necessary, Abrego Garcia being granted permission to leave El Salvador.”

“At that point,” Evan C. Katz, a Department of Homeland Security official who oversees the removal and return of certain deportees, “would be able to arrange travel options from El Salvador to the United States,” lawyers wrote. But “Abrego Garcia’s confinement at CECOT or any other facility in El Salvador is at the discretion of El Salvador,” they noted.

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