Abrego, Trump at stalemate 1 year after mistaken deportation

A year after a Maryland man mistakenly was deported to El Salvador, his legal back-and-forth with the Trump administration remains at a stalemate.

On March 18, 2025, News4 first reported the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Beltsville, who had an order banning his deportation there due to fears of persecution.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement called it an administrative error, and the Trump administration claimed it couldn’t bring Abrego back to the U.S. — until the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in and ordered his return.

“This was not the first wrongful deportation case I’d ever handled, right,” said Abrego’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. “It happens from time to time under every presidential administration, and in the past, you know, sometimes it might take them a little while to convince them that they had made a mistake, but once you convinced them that they made a mistake, they say, ‘You’re right. We messed this up. We’re going to fix this. We’re going to bring him back

Instead, the opposite happened when the administration took a stand on a number of legal arguments, in part saying Abrego was a dangerous member of MS-13, which Abrego denies.

“What we were all surprised by was the extent to which they dug in on those arguments by taking it up to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

While that was going, Abrego was being held in a prison in El Salvador where, Sandoval-Moshenberg says, Abrego was tortured.

“He had his head shaved, and then he and the other detainees were forced to kneel with their hands behind their head all night,” the lawyer said.

Following an order from the Supreme Court, Abrego was returned to the U.S. in June 2025.

Then he was indicted on human smuggling charges, the government alleging that as a member of MS-13 Abrego illegally transported undocumented people from at least 2016 to 2025.

Abrego’s attorney denies that claim.

In December, a judge ordered Abrego released from ICE custody, saying the Trump administration lacked legal authority to continue to hold him in an immigration detention center.

Abrego returned to Maryland and reunited with his family.

No trial date is set in the criminal case against Abrego in Tennessee while a federal judge decides on a motion by Abrego that the Trump administration singled him out for selective and vindictive prosecution.

As for the immigration case, Sandoval-Moshenberg says both sides remain at odds.

“He has continued to express that he is willing to go to Costa Rica; the government has continued to express that they’re not willing to send him there,” he said.

For now, Abrego lives with his family in Prince George’s County, essentially under house arrest until there is a resolution.

Last month, a judge ruled ICE could not detain Abrego again because the 90-day detention period had expired. The judge said federal authorities have not presented a viable plan for deportation.

News4 reached out to ICE Monday to ask for an update on Abrego’s case but has not heard back.