Judge calls DOJ's motion to dismiss Kilmar Abrego Garcia's lawsuit "meritless"

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Source: CBS News

July 7, 2025 / 2:32 PM EDT


A federal judge denied the Justice Department's motions to dismiss Kilmar Abrego Garcia's lawsuit over his mistaken deportation to El Salvador, calling one of the government's motions "meritless." She did not immediately rule on Abrego Garcia's motion to be moved to federal custody in Maryland, pending his criminal trial in Tennessee on human trafficking charges. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said to Justice Department attorney Bridget O'Hickey, "You made three arguments, defendants, and none are availing … meritless."

Xinis, who had ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. after he was sent to El Salvador in March, questioned O'Hickey about whether the U.S. had indicted him in order to facilitate his return. The government did not notify Xinis or Abrego Garcia's attorneys when he was returned to the U.S. in June and immediately indicted.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was part of a group of more than 250 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men who were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador and held in CECOT, a maximum security prison, in mid-March. Soon afterward, he sued the government over his deportation. His amended suit asks Xinis that he be held in custody in Maryland, rather than in Tennessee, where he's currently being detained, as well as to block his deportation.

"Obviously you did have power to produce Mr. Abrego because you produced him less than a week later." Xinis told the government, citing the May 21 date of a sealed indictment against Abrego Garcia in Tennessee filed six days after a motion in Maryland that said the government had no power to return him to the U.S.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-government-motions-to-dismiss-kilmar-abrego-garcias-lawsuit/