The judge overseeing the case of a Maryland man erroneously deported to El Salvador has reiterated that the Trump administration must return him to the U.S.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, along with hundreds of other deportees from the U.S., is being held in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), which District Court Judge Paula Xinis described as “one of the most notoriously inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world” that keeps people “in some of the most inhumane and squalid conditions known in any carceral system.”

“The officers had no warrant for his arrest and no lawful basis to take him into custody; they told him only that his ‘status had changed,'” Xinis wrote in her order issued Friday, which was obtained by Politico.

Abrego Garcia was arrested last month. He came to the U.S. from El Salvador because local gangs were trying to recruit him, threatening both him and his family. He was arrested in Maryland in 2019, but a judge granted him protection from deportation because he was likely to be targeted. His wife and five-year-old autistic son are both U.S. citizens. Abrego Garcia was reportedly arrested in front of his son.

Even Department of Homeland Security officials admitted in an earlier court filing that Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador last month because of an “administrative error.” Despite that, the Justice Department has argued that it cannot bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.

In a statement on Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “We suggest the judge contact President Bukele.”

As Xinis pointed out, the Justice Department has shown “no evidence” to back up its claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. Further, she said, by publicly labeling him as a gang member, the government put him at high risk of being targeted because as part of CECOT’s cruelty, the facility “intentionally mixes rival gang members.”

Attorneys for Abrego Garcia told The Atlantic the accusations that he is a gang member are false, pointing to police records that state law enforcement was unable to find reliable evidence to connect him with MS-13 in 2019. They additionally noted that Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of any crimes, nor has he been involved with law enforcement at any other times.

The obvious lack of evidence against Abrego Garcia has not stopped Vice President J.D. Vance from spreading misinformation about him. “He was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here,” he falsely claimed.

Xinis also dismantled the Trump administration’s argument that because Abrego Garcia is in El Salvador, they are not able to return him to the U.S.

“Surely, Defendants do not mean to suggest that they have wholesale erased the substantive and procedural protections of [federal immigration law in one fell swoop by dropping those individuals in CECOT without recourse,” Xinis wrote.

Xinis pointed out that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently visited CECOT where she appeared in a bizarre video in front of dozens of incarcerated men held in a large cell. In the video, she called the prison “one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use.”

“Thus, just as in any other contract facility, Defendants can and do maintain the power to secure and transport their detainees, Abrego Garcia included,” Xinis wrote, using the administration’s own words to undermine its argument. Trending Stories

Xinis also noted that the administration’s “legal basis for the mass removal of hundreds of individuals to El Salvador remains disturbingly unclear.” But she emphasized that Abrego Garcia’s case is “categorically different” because “there were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal.”

“Rather, his detention appears wholly lawless,” she wrote.