GREENBELT, MARYLAND – The Trump administration defied a court order on Friday, telling a judge in writing and verbally that it could not provide information about a man that it admitted it wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison.
At the court hearing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis for the District of Maryland repeatedly asked a DOJ lawyer to provide basic information about the whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported on March 15.
“I have a simple question: Where is he?” Xinis implored more than once.
Each time the judge asked, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign was unable to answer the question. He said he had no personal knowledge and that Trump administration officials were still assessing what they could and would tell the court about Abrego Garcia.
In one Kafkaesque exchange, the judge dropped her head into her hands when Ensign said, “The government does not contradict the plaintiff’s claim that he is imprisoned in El Salvador.”
As it became clear the Trump administration’s pattern of stonewalling her in their filings would continue in the hearing, Xinis excoriated Ensign, telling him that the Supreme Court’s Thursday order in the case had been clear.
“The Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly, yet I can’t get an answer from you about what has happened,” a visibly frustrated Xinis said.
Ensign repeatedly refused to budge. He said that the administration needed time to interpret the Supreme Court’s ruling mandating that it comply with Xinis’ decision to facilitate Abrego Garcia return. In an earlier written filing on Friday, the administration did much the same: It said that it would not comply with a request for information about its efforts to release Abrego Garcia because Xinis had provided too short a deadline.
Ensign contended that Xinis should have asked for more briefing from the Trump administration after the Supreme Court’s ruling before issuing her new order demanding information on the status of the Abrego Garcia. The judge strenuously disagreed.
“My words are clear,” Xinis said.
After being stymied from learning of Abrego Garcia’s current status, Xinis turned to the question of what the Trump administration had already done to try to facilitate his release. Xinis noted that the administration had been under her deadline beginning last Friday and continuing until last Monday, when the Supreme Court lifted the deadline. Ensign said the administration was not prepared to provide that information, at one point suggesting it may raise new claims of privilege to avoid responding.
Xinis noted that, in the absence of any information, the record before her would show that the administration had failed to act, leaving her only to conclude: “Your client has done nothing to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia.”
Ensign said the Trump administration was “actively” looking at the Supreme Court’s ruling and intended to comply with her order but was still assessing and evaluating what information it could provide. “What evaluation needs to be done?” a baffled Xinis said.
In one back-and-forth, the judge said, “I don’t mean to direct all my frustration at you, Mr. Ensign.” But a moment later, she said, “You don’t to have full and effective contact with your client.”
“We’re not going to slow walk this,” Xinis said, before adding, “We’re not re-litigating what the Supreme Court said.”
But when the judge turned to the issue of what to do about the Trump administration’s stonewalling, she seemed at a loss, and landed on issuing a new order for the administration to provide daily status updates until her questions were answered. Ensign suggested the administration might be ready to respond by the end of the day Monday or perhaps Tuesday.
“I hope you will in good faith comply,” Xinis said near the end of the hearing, with a mix of frustration and resignation.
For Ensign, the hearing was a repeat of his experience before Judge James Boasberg for the District of Columbia. Across several hearings in a case dealing with the Alien Enemies Act, Boasberg grilled Ensign about basic details of the removal of more than 100 Venezuelans. Ensign couldn’t answer many of the questions, as Boasberg grew increasingly frustrated.
On Friday evening, the Supreme Court sided with Abrego Garcia. The DOJ must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, the high court ruled, while stopping short of saying what steps judges can order the administration to take in order to complete that task.
The court also made a point of saying that the Trump administration needs to be ready “to share what it can” regarding the steps it should be taking to return Abrego Garcia.
The administration had indicated it was not prepared or willing to provide that information in a series of Friday morning filings before the hearing.
Judge Paula Xinis ordered the DOJ to file a declaration by 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday. It blew that deadline, instead asking the court for a Tuesday evening filing time. Judge Xinis delayed her deadline until 11:30 a.m. ET on Friday. Around 45 minutes after that deadline, the DOJ filed a document that it styled as a “response.” There, it declined to provide information, saying both that it lacked enough time and that it would be “unreasonable and impracticable” to supply what the judge wanted.
The Trump administration has defended its mistake in deporting Abrego Garcia contra a standing immigration court order barring his removal through a series of increasingly authoritarian arguments and brazen threats to defy the courts. Administration lawyers told the Supreme Court that the judiciary had no power to compel the administration to return someone that it knew it wrongfully deported; Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned in a concurring statement Thursday that the Trump administration’s logic could seemingly be applied to mistakes involving U.S. citizens, as well.
Fine, they’ve admitted they have no control of the situation and cannot rectify their mistakes to wrongly detain and exile people…. Then halt them from sending people to a hellhole.
Mr. Garcia was not “wrongly deported.”
He was kidnapped and disappeared.
We are becoming Brazil post-1965 or 1970s and 1980s Argentina. The time for turning back is now.
Look, Judge, the problem is that airlines ask you to check bonesaws, so the specialists we hired from Saudi Arabia to locate Mr. Garcia were delayed because their luggage was lost. So we are trying to locate him just as the Supreme Court instructed, and will provide you with his location or locations as soon as that happens.
$5 million a day, everyday until he is produced.
It’s cute the way everyone is humoring the judges and acting as if the Courts are still relevant.