The meaning of one word is at the center of a legal showdown between President Donald Trump’s administration and attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who the White House said was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.
Federal judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. and to provide daily updates on their efforts. On Tuesday, she paved the way for two weeks of expedited discovery, during which the administration would be required to provide documents and sworn testimony.
The Trump administration appealed that request for sworn testimony, but in a Thursday ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn the order.
In its appeal, the Department of Justice said the court is interpreting the word “facilitate” using a dictionary definition, but that the definition is different in an immigration context.
“Sometimes in really contentious cases like this one, matters can come down to the meaning of one word,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “While in plain English, we might think of facilitate as an action, bringing Kilmar Abrego back to Maryland, on the other hand, the Trump administration is interpreting the requirement differently.”
The Department of Justice said it doesn’t have the authority to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. In court Tuesday, attorney Drew Ensign said the administration is interpreting the word “facilitate” in an immigration context.
According to the government’s appeal, “in the immigration context, ‘facilitate an alien’s return’ is a term of art, informed by longstanding executive practice and the separation of powers. And that definition is far narrower than its ordinary meaning. It does not include all things to ‘make the occurrence of (something) easier. Rather, it is cabined to domestic measures, which do not reach past the sovereign lands of the United States.”
Xinis, the federal judge, rejected that notion during Tuesday’s status hearing.
Meanwhile, Rina Gandhi, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, said “the government is attempting to limit” its responsibility based on its interpretation of the word.
“The Supreme Court has been clear,” Gandhi said Tuesday after the hearing. “They said to facilitate the release from custody, correct? So even if we define facilitate to mean something specific, you can’t ignore the next part of that sentence, and that’s what the government has continued to try to do, which the judge spoke out against today.”
Asked specifically about what her interpretation of the word would require the government to do, Gandhi said the government has facilitated the return of people from abroad before.
“They know the processes and steps, and the people to reach out to, the agencies that need to be involved, to make that happen,” Gandhi said.
Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to work to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. But Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that he “is not coming back to our country.”
According to court filings, if Abrego Garcia entered the U.S., he would be taken into Department of Homeland Security custody and sent to another country, or would have his withholding of removal status changed and would be sent back to El Salvador.
The Trump administration has said Abrego Garcia is a member of the gang MS-13, something his attorneys said there’s no evidence of.
In a statement Thursday night, Prince George’s County police described their March 2019 encounter with Abrego Garcia and other men.
Detectives, the department said, “had reasonable suspicion, based on their training and experience, three of the four men, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, displayed traits associated with MS-13 gang culture. This was based on tattoos, clothing, as well as information from a source.”
The department documented intelligence gathered for each individual, it said, but didn’t charge or arrest any of them.
Ivan Mendez, one of the officers who interviewed the group of men, was suspended pending investigation into an unrelated matter in April 2019, the department said. He pled guilty and was fired in December 2022.
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