A federal judge in Maryland ordered the United States government to return a deported Beltsville man by 11:59 p.m. Monday in a case she called “unprecedented.”

Judge Paula Xinis on Friday ruled against the Trump administration’s argument that the court had no jurisdiction, and said the record reflects that 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained without legal basis and ultimately deported without legal due process. Officials admitted this week that Abrego Garcia's deportation resulted from an “administrative error.”

The federal government appealed the ruling to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Abrego Garcia is believed to be currently detained at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a notorious prison, despite a 2019 court ruling granting him protection due to the threat of gang persecution in his home country.

Friday’s ruling marks an inflection point in a case that has garnered national attention as the Trump administration wades into murky legal waters over its crackdown on immigration.

On a screen at the courthouse, Abrego Garcia‘s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, could be seen hugging her husband’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, while supporters were cheering outside.

“What do we want? Justice for Kilmar! When do we want it? Now!” shouted the crowd.

Vasquez Sura thanked supporters and said, “we’ll continue fighting for Kilmar, for my husband.”

Addressing reporters, Sandoval-Moshenberg said the government appears to be showing “apathy” toward both Abrego Garcia’s family and the legal case. He said they took “no actual steps to communicate or provide documents to the lawyer who they sent into court to defend their actions.”

During the hearing, Erez Reuveni of the Justice Department was unable to provide answers on the legal basis for Abrego Garcia's detainment.

“On what basis is he held?” the judge asked.

“I don’t know … that information has not been given to me,” Reuveni responded.

Xinis later asked whether the government could produce a warrant or statement of probable cause leading to Abrego Garcia's arrest.

“The government has not put that in the record, and that’s the best I can do,” the attorney replied.

The government concedes that the 2019 deportation order cannot be the basis for the deportation to El Salvador, Reuveni said.

A judge blocked that order, granting Abrego Garcia legal protection to remain in the U.S. and work lawfully; Xinis said a removal based on that order would therefore be “an illegal act.”

The government also conceded that Abrego Garcia was not removed under the Alien Enemies Act, a law that a federal judge has barred the Trump administration from using to justify the expedited removal of alleged Venezuelan gang members without allowing them the chance to fight their deportation in an immigration court.

“He should not have been removed,” was one of the first things Reuveni said to the judge.

Reuveni’s main argument was not on the merits, but rather one of jurisdiction — Abrego Garcia is now held by a different, sovereign government and it is not within the court’s power to order he be returned.

Xinis said there was “no dispute” of a contract between the two governments to hold deportees in the prison, recalling DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s remarks that it was a “tool in our toolkit.” Reuveni said there was no evidence in the record of that.

But leaders like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others have publicly referred to the deal, Xinis said.

“I can’t say where they [leaders] got that information,” Reuveni replied.

“They are the main defendants,” Xinis said, somewhat perplexed.

Sandoval-Moshenberg argued that there is precedent for the government bringing someone back to the U.S. who was wrongfully deported, and there’s “good reason to believe the government would be successful” if they admitted the mistake and simply asked El Salvador’s government to release Abrego Garcia.

He said he was “flabbergasted” they haven’t done so.

“Just very practically, why can’t the United States get Mr. Abrego Garcia back?” Xinis later asked government counsel.

Reuveni gave a brief pause, then said he had asked his clients — ICE and the Department of Homeland Security — but hadn’t gotten a satisfactory answer.

Elizabeth Keyes, an immigration law professor at the University of Baltimore, said the judge’s ruling will not set a legally binding precedent, but it will hopefully empower other families to fight other wrongful deportations.

“It’s a specific, important outcome for his family and for him and his safety,” she said. “It also hopefully sends a really loud signal to the administration that they need to follow the law, that they cannot run roughshod over the constitution in their hurry to remove people.”

The government now has to make “every effort” to meet the judge’s deadline.

If they don’t, Keyes said, that raises a constitutional problem.

Earlier in the day Vasquez Sura recounted the last thing her husband told her, which was to take care of their 5-year-old son, who is named after him. In her first speaking appearance since news of her husband’s deportation was reported, she said she hasn’t seen or heard from him since.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Abrego Garcia not long after he picked up his child from school on March 12. Abrego Garcia was sitting handcuffed on the curb when his wife arrived.

“Si fueres fuerte, yo seré fuerte,” he said. “I’ll be strong if you are.”

Vasquez Sura, who said she identified her husband from his tattoo in a photo of prisoners in El Salvador, stood by advocates holding signs with pictures of Abrego Garcia kissing his son’s cheek.

What federal officials are calling an administrative mistake has thrown the family into fear, heartbreak and jeopardy, advocates said.

Abrego Garcia and Vasquez Sura are parents of three children. All of them have disabilities.

“There’s nothing administrative about destroying a family. There is nothing accidental about violating a clear court order,” said Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, CASA’s chief of organizing. “There is nothing just about disappearing somebody into a notorious Salvadoran prison and all paid for by the Trump administration.”

As she addressed a room of reporters, Vasquez Sura’s voice broke and she began to tear up. When she wakes up from the few hours she is able to sleep at night, she said, her surroundings still feel like a nightmare.

Days ago, Vasquez Sura caught her 10-year-old daughter trying to reach her father, sending him messages from her tablet telling him she missed him and wished she could trade places with him. She said her child is desperate “to make sense of something not even adults have answers to.”

The Trump administration has said Abrego Garcia is a member of the violent gang MS-13, but his family and attorney strongly dispute these allegations, insisting that there is no credible proof.

The Trump administration has said previously that despite the error, it could not and would not move to bring Abrego Garcia back to his family in the U.S. It’s unclear whether they will move to do so before the Monday deadline.

When asked whether he feared if the Trump administration would comply with the ruling, Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters, “I’m a lawyer. I have to trust that they’re going to follow the judge’s order unless and until they don’t.”

If not, they’ll be “back here in front of the judge.”

Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador after the gang Barrio 18 threatened him and his family in an attempt to extort them for “rent” money, according to court papers. He came to the U.S. as an undocumented person around 2011, according to his lawyers, and made his way to Maryland to join his older brother, a U.S. citizen.

In 2019, Abrego Garcia faced an immigration hearing after he was arrested while looking for work and turned over to ICE following allegations that he was a member of MS-13. But his attorney at the time pushed back against the claim, which relied on a confidential informant.

Trump administration officials have said publicly that a judge “confirmed” he was a member of MS-13 at the time because his application for a bond and subsequent appeal were denied by a judge based on the threat he posed to public safety.

Sandoval-Moshenberg pushed back on that Friday, saying that Abrego Garcia’s 2019 bond hearing was preliminary, and there simply weren’t sufficient facts presented at the time to prove or disprove any gang affiliation.

He was then issued a deportation order but later granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge, which required proving it was more likely than not that he would face persecution if returned to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia was arrested under the purview of ICE’s Baltimore field office, which recently came under scrutiny for its practice of detaining people in bedless cells for multiple days at a time. His arrest came before former local field office director Matthew Elliston’s recent promotion was made public.

Krystal Oriadha, Prince George’s County councilmember for District 7, said Abrego Garcia’s deportation was “intentional.”

“If we do not rally together and stand with our brothers and sisters right now,” she said, “there will be a moment where there’s no one left to protect you.”