Trump admin won’t be held in contempt over refusal to return wrongly deported alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia — as judge warns against ‘gamesmanship’

A Maryland federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to return an alleged MS-13 gang member wrongly deported to El Salvador last month ruled that she would not hold any government officials in contempt for violating her order — for now — but warned against further “gamesmanship.”

“We have to give process to both sides. But we are going to move,” US District Judge Paula Xinis said at a hearing in her Greenbelt, Maryland, courtroom Tuesday afternoon.

“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding.”

Xinis questioned lawyers with the federal government over its continued refusal to get Kilmar Abrego Garcia back by April 7 after he was shipped off El Salvador’s hellhole lockup CECOT last month — against a prior court order granting him asylum in the US.

On Friday, Xinis demanded Justice Department lawyers return to her courtroom to lay out for her Abrego Garcia’s location, his circumstances in prison, what steps they have taken to have him returned and what steps they plan to take to uphold several court orders — including one from the US Supreme Court.

Abrego Garcia — who had been living in the Old Line State — was sent to his home country last month by the Trump administration, alongside 260 other reputed gang members under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.

The feds have claimed Abrego Garcia is part of the vicious Salvadoran gang MS-13 and that he was illegally in the country.

But the move to boot him went against a 2019 immigration order blocking his removal to his home country on the grounds he would have been targeted by rival gangs, like Barrio 18.

The judge didn’t, however, bar him from being deported to another country.

The high court also found he was wrongly deported and instructed the feds to “facilitate” his return. The Supreme Court sent the case back down to a lower court.

Ahead of the hearing earlier Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused the feds of taking no steps to get their client back — despite the court orders.

His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, also said Tuesday that her husband was working hard to achieve the American dream for his family when he was taken in front of their young child.

“That dream was shattered on March 12th when he was abducted and disappeared by the United States government in front of our 5-year-old child,” she said.

“Today is 34 days after this disappearance…I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive.”

Abrego Garcia’s team has filed a lawsuit to fight for his return.

On Monday, President Trump met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, where his Central American counterpart said any call for him to have his citizen returned would be “preposterous.”

“I hope you are not suggesting that I smuggle terrorists into the United States,” Bukele said. “Of course, I’m not going to do that.”

US Attorney General Pam Bondi also appeared indignant toward the court orders for Abrego Garcia’s return when she said on Fox News Monday, “We don’t want Kilmar Abrego Garcia back.”

With Post wires.