GREENBELT, MARYLAND – A Maryland federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to make officials and documents available for an inquiry into whether they’re violating a court order to take steps to release a wrongly deported Salvadoran man from custody.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered an expedited discovery process, saying that four Trump ICE, DHS, and DOJ officials who submitted declarations in the case would need to sit for depositions over the coming week to answer basic questions about the removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and whether the Trump administration has complied with a Supreme Court ruling to facilitate his release.
“We have to give process to both sides, but we’re going to move,” Xinis said in court, referring to her tight two-week schedule for discovery. Xinis indicated she was aware of the urgency of the case, with Abrego Garcia having already been imprisoned for a month. “Each day is another day of irreparable harm,” she said.
Xinis rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it needed more clarity on what she meant by the word “facilitate” in her order. Countering a Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign’s contention that this issue was a legal question about the definition of the term and no discovery was needed, Xinis said, “Getting to the facts may not be terribly comfortable.”
The judge stopped short of issuing a show cause order and launching a contempt proceeding against the government, but she reserved the right to come back to that later in the case. For now, Xinis was focused on what she described as core work of federal district judges, creating a factual record and refereeing any discovery disputes.
Xinis pointedly noted that the discovery process would help her ascertain if the Trump administration has been acting in good faith or has a legitimate basis for not having moved to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. But she tipped her hand a bit, declaring: “Nothing has been done. Nothing.”
Later in the hearing, Xinis pantomimed the Trump administration’s position in a sing-song voice while holding her hands upward. “As strange as it is, the government is saying, ‘We can’t ask El Salvador,'” she said.
In trying to sidestep discovery, Ensign cited yesterday’s already-infamous Oval Office meeting between President Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele as evidence of the administration taking steps to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release, albeit unsuccessfully. Xinis was unmoved. “I don’t consider what happened yesterday to be before this court,” she said, adding that she wanted sworn testimony from people with personal knowledge of the case and wasn’t going to settle for press releases.
Ensign was unwilling to commit to making available for depositions the Trump administration officials who had already filed declarations in the case. When he raised the prospect that one of the officials — the acting general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security — might invoke attorney-client privilege, Xinis scoffed, reminding Ensign that it was his choice to use the official as a declarant and thus may have waived the privilege.
To emphasize the urgency of what she called an “extremely important case,” Xinis said her court would be open 24/7 as long as the case is pending. She offered to make her courtroom available for depositions so she could rule on objections on the spot. She encouraged the parties to work nights and weekends and to cancel vacations and appointments. “All hands on deck,” she admonished.
It was the first hearing in the Abrego Garcia case since a Friday session at which DOJ attorneys stonewalled as Judge Xinis tried to compel them to answer basic questions about the Salvadoran man’s fate and the government’s supposed efforts to secure his release.
Since then, the DOJ has complained about, hemmed, hawed, and stonewalled Xinis’ requirement to provide daily updates, by 5 p.m. ET, on Abrego Garcia’s status and the administration’s efforts to retrieve him.
On some days, DOJ officials blew the deadline by at least a few minutes. In no status report did the administration provide answers on the administration’s efforts to secure his release.
Rather, they confirmed that Abrego Garcia is alive and detained in CECOT. Otherwise, the Trump administration has stonewalled the court by instead providing a constantly shifting series of justifications for why it cannot and will not attempt to obtain the release of Abrego Garcia.
One DHS official said in a declaration filing immediately before today’s hearing that DHS would detain Abrego Garcia if he appeared at a U.S. port of entry and then deport him to a third country or move to cancel the withholding of deportation order, and then remove him to El Salvador. The government has also cited Bukele’s Monday Oval Office statement that he would not return Abrego Garcia, and claimed that the courts lack the power to order the White House to secure his release, claiming it would be an intrusion into the executive branch’s power to conduct foreign affairs.
It all smacks of defiance of the Supreme Court ruling, which upheld Xinis’ order directing the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had asked Judge Xinis to order the government to request their client’s return, and for an order to show cause why they weren’t in contempt.
The Trump administration removed Abrego Garcia to El Salvador last month, putting him on a flight with detainees who were swept up in an operation to use the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 100 Venezuelans to the Central American state without a hearing. Abrego Garcia was detained on March 12 and removed on March 15; since then, government officials have admitted in court several times that Abrego Garcia was removed by mistake.
Late update: After this post was published, Judge Xinis issued her order on expedited discovery:
Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia’s life is in danger every day.
They’ve picked a strange hill to die on. Although, of course, they think the other guy will be the one to die.
Can kicked down the road again until “oops, he was murdered in an El Salvadorian concentration camp. Case is moot. Next!”
This strikes me as a loser’s strategy. What I mean by that is that the court clearly believes that it is not going to win in this process. It believes that it will not succeed in getting the Trump administration to follow its orders. This is why it’s strategy is to document everything to Trump administration is doing to the greatest extent possible, rather than actually doing anything to facilitate Garcia’s release.
This may be the best strategy, because the more active court might end up spending more time waiting for appeals, but it suggests that already people are planning for a future where the rule of law is upheld, rather than a present where the rule of law is respected.
This is the part that seems like it ought to get widely reported. If he made it to the border, they’d do it all again. How much more do we need to confirm their middle finger to the judicial branch?
That can be easily arranged. Bukake can kill him himself, who is going to do anything about it?