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Three judges immediately deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an Salvadorian immigrant, immediately slowed down on Wednesday and were praised by Abrego's lawyers in a series of back-to-back court orders, but Trump officials ran around the fight.
The order is 90 minutes away from the U.S. areas of Tennessee and Maryland and has ceased, and the Trump administration has now claimed plans to get Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest Abrego Garcia and immediately begin deporting him to third countries, such as Mexico or South Sudan. Justice Department officials acknowledged that a federal judge in Maryland said the handover of the U.S. marshal to ice officials could take place outside the federal prison at Abrego Garcia, which is currently ongoing.
Those concerns will be further strengthened as senior Trump administration officials traveled to social media on Wednesday to oppose a series of court rulings. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), vowed on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia “will never walk the streets of the United States again.”
“The irrelevant judge tried to tell ICE that they could not arrest MS-13 gang members prosecuted by the grand jury trafficking of the grand jury and were arrested under federal law as illegal and crazy,” she said.
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Donald Trump spoke accompanied by Pam Bondi, who was sworn in at the Oval Office of the White House. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The remarks have sparked new concerns among immigration advocates, as well as lawyers for Abreg Garcia and his family.
“Our questions about the Trump administration’s compliance with anyone involved are intensified, ongoing concerns,” Chris Newman, an attorney representing Abrego Garcia’s family, told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday after the order.
Despite a series of recent victories for Abrego Garcia, his concerns remain, aiming to provide due process and engage with lawyers before he is removed from office.
In Nashville, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ordered Abrego Garcia to be released from a criminal custody trial Wednesday, and wrote in a 37-page ruling that the federal government “has failed to provide any evidence to prove Abrego’s history or his statement characteristics that guarantee the detention case.”
He also poured cold water on dozens of charges from Trump officials, including Kristi Noem, Nashville's DHS secretary, who was a member of the MS-13 gang last week.
“Based on previous records, the court found that Abrego was a member of MS13 or affiliation with MS13, and it had to make so many inferences from the evidence provided by the government that this conclusion would be related to fantasy,” he said.
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Homeland Security Minister Kristi Noem spoke on March 26, 2025 when visiting the terrorist lockdown center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)
U.S. District Judge Barbara Holmes, who was responsible for the execution of the order, held Abrego Garcia for 30 days from criminal custody, after a request made by his attorney earlier this week.
Two minutes after Judge Crenshaw's ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, who is in charge of the Maryland civil case, issued an emergency order that prevented the administration from immediately putting Abrego Garcia in ICE detention center on fear that he would be immediately removed from office without proper procedures.
She also ordered the ice order to send Abrego Garcia to the Baltimore field office and removed him to a third country 72 hours in advance to ensure attorneys and challenge the evacuation of the country.
Abrego Garcia's lawyers praised the court's order on Wednesday, despite stressing that there is a long road – and still full of uncertainty.
“These rulings are a strong condemnation of the inability of the government and a key guarantee of Kilmar's due process rights,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's lawyers.
But Abrego Garcia's case has been at the center of a month's legal vortex, with critics believing that the Trump administration can test its courage to enforce immigration law and its ability to act slowly or escape federal courts.
Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland to protest the Trump administration's expulsion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador in March, and executive officials said it was an administrative error. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Number)
It remains to be seen that the government appealed Wednesday or otherwise appealed the order.
The Supreme Court has been linked to the Trump administration in recent months with many key court cases and a series of emergency orders, which suggests they can intervene urgently at that level.
Although the Supreme Court justice unanimously ordered the Trump administration to promote Abrego Garcia's return to the United States from El Salvador this year, it is unclear whether they will intervene to avoid the government's planned removal. Any challenges to the Tennessee order, including 30 days of accommodation, will also be heard by the conservative court of appeals in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which may prevent lower courts from ordering force.
Others noted the Trump administration’s posture in recent immigration cases, including after migrating hundreds of immigrants to CECOT prisons in El Salvador earlier this year.
Critics argue that the Trump administration’s slow or downright stubbornness in complying with court orders — prompting their actions to prompt two judges in Washington, D.C. and Maryland to threaten potential contempt lawsuits earlier this year. The April ruling of U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg found that there was a possibility of defiance of the government for violating his orders to prevent them from using wartime laws to deport immigrants to Cecot.
On the other hand, Trump officials oppose “activist” judges who believe they blocked their agenda and went beyond court power.
Abrego Garcia and his family’s lawyers said their views on the government were clear and hoped to challenge the order even if the details of the efforts remain unclear.
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“It's publicly recorded now, and their posture is to say from the beginning, 'f — you're 'to the court',” Newman, the attorney for Abrego Garcia's family.
“So it would be an understatement to say that we are alert to the potentially malicious efforts of the Trump administration,” he said.
Breanne Deppisch is a national political journalist covering the Trump administration with a focus on the Department of Justice, the FBI and other national news.