Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are refusing to wave the white flag, urging a federal judge on Sunday to hold the Trump administration in contempt for allegedly orchestrating “an elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage” the erroneously deported Maryland father — only to haul him back last week to face criminal charges, according to his attorneys.
“Though Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is, at long last, back in the United States following his illegal removal, to characterize the Government as having ‘complied with the court’s order’ is pure farce,” said Abrego Garcia’s legal team in a five-page filing.
“The Government flouted rather than followed the orders of this Court and the United States Supreme Court,” the lawyers claimed.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are seeking contempt sanctions in Maryland, where his family filed a federal lawsuit in March to bring the legally protected father back to the United States after he was deported on March 15.
According to Sunday’s filing, the Trump administration demonstrated how easy it was to bring Abrego Garcia home, calling it the “latest act of contempt” from government officials following months of alleged stonewalling.
“The Government arranged for Abrego Garcia’s return, not to Maryland in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive … but rather to Tennessee so that he could be charged with a crime in a case that the Government only developed while it was under threat of sanctions,” his legal team stated.
“The Government’s convenient ability to return Abrego Garcia in time for a press conference unveiling his indictment puts the lie to its previously feigned powerlessness to comply with this Court’s injunction.”
Abrego Garcia was brought to the United States on Friday, after the Trump administration claimed for months that the government had its hands tied and couldn’t do anything to get him back.
Abrego Garcia, a legally protected Maryland resident, was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious work prison in El Salvador without due process.
His attorneys accused Homeland Security and Department of Justice officials of defying a federal judge and the United States Supreme Court by refusing to provide any information about what was being done to “facilitate” his return.
A federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Abrego Garcia on the criminal charges last month.
According to his indictment, from 2016 to 2025, Abrego Garcia “conspired to bring undocumented aliens to the United States from countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and elsewhere, ultimately passing through Mexico before crossing into Texas.”
Abrego Garcia and several other alleged coconspirators are accused of transporting “thousands” of undocumented aliens into the United States, many of whom are alleged MS-13 gang members.
When asked why Abrego Garcia was only now being indicted — nearly three years after the traffic stop that put him on authorities’ radar — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the charges were based on “new facts” that had emerged since Abrego Garcia’s removal became a political flashpoint.
President Donald Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he had no role in bringing Abrego Garcia back, stating, “That wasn’t my decision.”
Abrego Garcia returned after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, a Barack Obama appointee, granted his attorneys permission to seek sanctions. Xinis asked for an official request by June 11.
“Over the past two months, the executive branch has acted not just in contempt of multiple court orders but with open defiance towards its coequal branch of government, the judiciary,” argued Abrego Garcia’s lawyers on Sunday.
“Two things are now crystal clear,” they explained. “First, the government has always had the option of returning Abrego Garcia, but it has simply refused to do so.”
Second, the government has engaged in a determined stalling campaign to avoid contempt sanctions long enough to devise a politically viable exit from its own predicament.”
According to the Sunday filing, Abrego Garcia’s legal team told the court that, at the very least, the civil case must continue to “address the status of Abrego Garcia” given the government’s “continuing threat of removal.”
“Even if Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States resolved every claim (it does not), this Court still retains jurisdiction to find contempt and impose sanctions,” the attorneys explained. “Until the Government is held accountable for its blatant, willful, and persistent violations of court orders at excruciating cost to Abrego Garcia and his family, this case is not over.”
