A day after a Federal Court requested details about the state of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, the State Department told a judge that Kilmar Abrego García is “alive and safe” but not yet on American soil.
“I understand that I have understood the presentation of official reports of our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego García is currently at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador,” said Michael Kozak, a senior official of the State Department office, in a statement presented on Saturdays minutes after the deadline of the 5 pm established by the judge.
“He is alive and sure in that installation,” Kozak added. “He is detained in accordance with the sovereign domestic authority of El Salvador.”
The Supreme Court had ordered the United States government to “facilitate” the return of Abrego García to America.
This photo provided by home, an immigrant defense organization, in April 2025, shows Kilmar Abrego García.
House through AP
Later on Saturday night, President Donald Trump posted in Truth Social claiming that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, “has gently accepted under the custody of his nation, some of the most violent alien enemies in the world and, in particular, of the United States.”
“These barbarians are now in the custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign nation, and their future depends on President B and his government,” he added.
Trump did not mention Abrego García directly or his case. He is scheduled to meet Bukele at the White House on Monday.
On Friday, Trump intervened in the order of the Supreme Court while talking to journalists, claiming that he was not well versed in the case. However, he reiterated his respect for the Supreme Court, which had confirmed the decision of a lower court that the United States government should help return Abrego García to the United States
“If the Supreme Court said to bring someone back, I would do it. I respect the Supreme Court,” he said.
Shortly before the Government presented its first state report before the Court, Abrego García’s lawyers presented an additional relief motion and cited Trump’s comments.
“Yesterday, President Trump confirmed that the United States has the power to facilitate the release of Abrego García from prison and return to the United States,” wrote Abrego García’s lawyers.
In the presentation, Maryland’s lawyers requested three additional types of relief, including the order to demonstrate why it should not be decelerated “due to their breach of the previous orders of the Court.”
“The recognition of the president of the power of the United States to return Abrego García despite the fact that the Department of Justice and other government agencies continue to resist this court and the Supreme Court,” they added.
President Donald Trump addresses the Air Force one before the joint base of Andrews in Maryland, on April 11, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP through Getty Images
The lawyers also asked the judge to order the government to provide air transport so that Abrego García returns to Maryland and grants him probation.
In an order written earlier this week, Judge Paula Xinis of the United States District Court for the Maryland district had requested the daily state report to answer what steps, if anyone, the Trump administration has taken to facilitate the immediate return of Abrego García to the United States and what additional steps the government will take and when, to facilitate its return.
While Kozak’s affidavit answers one of the questions Xinis requested, the answer did not provide more details about the return of Abrego García.
Abrego García, despite having received a 2019 court order that except for his deportation to El Salvador, where his lawyers argue that he escaped from political violence in 2011, was sent to the famous mega prisoner of that country after what the government said it was an “administrative error”, according to the immigration of the United States and the Customs official.
A policeman protects a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, April 4, 2025.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters
The Trump administration said that Abrego García was a member of the MS-13 gang, that his lawyers and his wife deny, and argued in legal presentations that because Abrego García is no longer in custody of the United States, the courts cannot order that they return it to the United States or order El Salvador to return him.
Xinis ordered the Government to help Big García return to the United States, which the Supreme Court confirmed Thursday.
“The order correctly requires that the government ‘facilitate’ the liberation of García de la Custody in El Salvador and ensure that his case is handled as it would have been if he had not been incorrectly sent to El Salvador,” said the non -signed order of the Supreme Court.
