Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers asked a federal judge on Thursday to issue a gag order stopping Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from making negative public comments about him.
According to Politico, which first reported the news, this is the third time Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have requested such an order, saying it could affect his right to a fair trial. The 30-year-old Salvadoran national is awaiting trial on federal human smuggling charges.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice for comment Thursday night.
Why It Matters
Abrego Garcia made headlines when he was caught up in a Trump administration deportation effort in March and mistakenly sent to a high-security prison in El Salvador.
Immigration rights advocates say the Trump administration violated Abrego Garcia and other detainees’ right to due process by detaining and deporting them without giving them a chance to challenge it in court.
His case is one of several legal challenges against the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used to push forward President Trump’s efforts to increase deportations.
What To Know
Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States after a long legal back-and-forth between his lawyers and government attorneys.
The Trump administration says he is part of the MS-13 gang—a claim he denies—and plans to deport him to Uganda.
His lawyers told a judge Wednesday that he wants to apply for asylum in the United States. In Thursday’s filing, they said public attacks from Bondi and Noem could threaten his constitutional rights.
“Further intervention from the Court is necessary to protect Mr. Abrego’s right to a fair trial and the integrity of these proceedings,” the filing said. “The government’s ongoing barrage of prejudicial statements severely threaten—and perhaps have already irrevocably impaired—the ability to try this case at all—in any venue.”
A DHS official told Newsweek Thursday night:
“If Kilmar Abrego Garcia did not want to be mentioned by the Secretary of Homeland Security, then he should have not entered our country illegally and committed heinous crimes.
Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend this criminal illegal MS-13 gang member who is an alleged human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator. The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal alien has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story. We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”
What People Are Saying
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia wrote on X Thursday:
“This afternoon, I visited Kilmar Abrego Garcia and other detainees at the Farmville Detention Center to deliver letters from his family. He wants to keep fighting for justice.”
The White House’s rapid response X account said Thursday:
“.@RealTomHoman: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is ‘a significant public safety threat… He’s a gang member, designated terrorist, and he’s been ordered removed by two different federal judges… I’m giving you my word: he WILL be deported from this country.'”
The Department of Homeland Security wrote on X this month:
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not and will never be a Maryland Man—he is a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador and public safety threat. It is insane that sanctuary politicians chose to glorify and stand with an MS-13 gang member over the safety of American citizens. @POTUS Trump and @Sec_Noem are not going to allow this illegal alien—who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator—to terrorize American citizens any longer.”
What Happens Next
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers also asked the Trump administration to “describe promptly the steps it has taken to comply with” a previous court ruling that requires both sides to follow Local Criminal Rules 2.01(a)(1) and (a)(4) and Tennessee Rule of Professional Conduct 3.8(f), the filing says.
