A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to provide more documentation of the actions taken to facilitate the safe return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, telling an attorney for the federal government "The Supreme Court ruling could not be more clear, and so is mine."
The order to submit interrogatories and depositions within two weeks, along with daily, specific status reports from the federal government, came during a Tuesday afternoon hearing with judge Paula Xinis. It was the latest court date in the case of the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador in mid-March.
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WATCH HEREAbrego Garcia was stopped by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers on March 12, while on his way to pick his children up from a bus stop. The officers detained him while his 5-year-old child was in the car.
He is now being held in a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and his family has been begging for his return to the United States for more than a month.
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SIGN UP "Kilmar, if you can hear me, stay strong," his wife, Jennifer, said at a Tuesday press conference held before the hearing. "God hasn't forgotten about you. Our children are asking, 'When would you come home?' And I pray for the day I tell them the time and date that you'll return."
That information remains out of reach, as the federal government has shared no updates on its efforts to comply with Xinis' order for Abrego Garcia's return.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld her order that Abrego Garcia be brought back to the U.S. where he could be given due process. On Friday, Xinis clarified her order and ordered the daily progress updates
Xinis was angry and upset with the U.S. government during the hearing, repeatedly asking Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign what the Justice Department had done to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
"In my view, Mr. Abrego Garcia has won his case for injunctive relief," Xinis said from the bench. "Every day he's not back in the U.S., there is irreparable harm."
Ensign argued that the U.S. government is prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, "but under only ICE rules," highlighting the use of the word "facilitate" in the unanimous Supreme Court ruling upholding Xinis' initial order.
Xinis interrupted Ensign to state, "The Supreme Court ruling could not have been more clear, and so is mine."
"We disagree on the definition of facilitate," Ensign replied.
"My order was very clear, and you have done nothing. You have done nothing," Xinis said from the bench.
The hearing ended with Xinis ordering interrogatories and depositions in the case, in an attempt to get the actions of the federal government on the record. She also suggested she was weighing contempt proceedings against the Trump administration.
Ensign said during the hearing that there was a record of what happened inside the Oval Office, referring to comments made by El Salvador's president that called Abrego Garcia's return "preposterous."
"That is not the record here," Xinis said, before ordering the interrogatories and depositions in the case. The legal documentation will add more information to the record of the case as it proceeds.
Abrego Garcia's wife says, after his arrest on March 12, he was taken to Baltimore, where he was questioned about his alleged ties to the gang MS-13, according to an affidavit.
He was then taken to Texas and put on the third deportation flight to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act — a 1798 law invoked by President Donald Trump — despite having the legal status of withholding of removal.
One of the attorneys for Abrego Garcia, at a press conference after the hearing, called the end result a "win" for the man and his family.
"Today, the court moved our case forward one step," she said. "We have not brought Kilmar home, but we have been able to at least secure that we will be able to question those involved and get information, get evidence, as required and requested."
"So even though, today, we don't have an order of contempt or anything that some in the press have been calling for, this is still a win, and this is still progress in the case."
