The Trump administration filed its notice of appeal of the February 17 decision by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, which converted an earlier order into a formal injunction blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from arresting and deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Notifying the court of its appeal to the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) noted that Xinis first enjoined the Trump administration from detaining Abrego Garcia last September, despite the government’s request that the injunction be dissolved, first in November and again in March.
According to the DOJ, the judge has additionally prohibited Abrego Garcia’s arrest without considering whether he is likely to succeed in his litigation, as required following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Winter v. National Resources Defense Council. Instead, Xinis first announced her decision in a docket entry and later in a letter that did not explain her legal reasoning.
The last Friday filing also refers to the March request by the Trump administration to Xinis, asking the judge to dissolve her injunction and announce a decision by April 17, the deadline for the Trump administration to appeal her February order blocking ICE from detaining Abrego Garcia.
While Xinis disputed that the DOJ had the authority to request that she make her decision by April 17 and instead scheduled a hearing for April 28, the Friday filing argues that her inaction has the practical effect of a refusal.
“The District Court has thus maintained an injunction against removing Petitioner from the United States for more than seven months without analyzing any of the required Winter factors,” wrote the DOJ attorneys.
Acknowledging the Trump administration agreed it would not deport Abrego Garcia prior to an October 2025 hearing, the attorneys added, “it did not agree to the open-ended injunction that the district court has kept in place.”
In their own filing, submitted on Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys acknowledged that Xinis may no longer have the authority to rule on their request for limited discovery, and requested the judge submit, “an indicative ruling explaining what, if any, additional discovery this Court would allow if the Fourth Circuit dismissed or remanded,” the case back to her court.
Deported to El Salvador amid controversy in March 2025, Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States last June, after the DOJ unsealed its indictment accusing him of participating in a human smuggling ring for nearly a decade. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
Witnesses for the DOJ have confirmed they began building their case against Abrego Garcia following reporting from The Tennessee Star about the November 2022 stop of his vehicle by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP). A spokesman for THP told The Star that troopers were instructed to release Abrego Garcia by the “Biden-era FBI,” despite the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releasing a document showing they suspected human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia has since filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration, the first over his March 2025 deportation, and the second after ICE arrested him following after he was granted conditional pretrial release for the federal human smuggling case in Tennessee.
While the Trump administration appeals Xinis’ injunction, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, another Obama appointee, is considering whether to toss the human smuggling case for vindictive prosecution.
The Star was recognized for its reporting on Abrego Garcia with the Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism last year.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
