Federal judge in scathing decision calls Trump’s deportation of Salvadoran man ‘wholly lawless’

The Hill · last updated April 7, 2025 – 5:50 PM

A federal judge in a scathing decision on Sunday said the Trump administration had no legal grounds to arrest, detain and deport a Salvadoran national from the United States to a prison in his home country, saying the decision was “wholly lawless.”

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in a 22-page decision ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secretary Kristi Noem to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States.

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