(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge overseeing the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in error, slammed the government’s handling of the case Friday and ordered the Justice Department to provide her with “daily updates” on its efforts to bring him back.
“From now until compliance, [I am] going to require daily statuses, daily updates,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said at a hearing in Maryland on Friday. “We’re going to make a record of what, if anything, the government is doing or not doing.”
The judge said she will require updates on Abrego Garcia’s location, what steps the Trump administration has taken to facilitate his return, and what additional steps the government will take to return him.
The judge said the Supreme Court, in its ruling on the matter late Thursday, was quite clear in directing the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia.
“The Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly,” Judge Xinis said. “And yet, I can’t get an answer today about what you’ve done in the past, which means, again, the record as it stands, is that nothing has been done.”
Judge Xinis began the hearing by asking the government to answer where Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia is — but Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign told the judge that he does “not have the information” regarding Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts.
“Where is he and under whose authority?” Xinis repeatedly asked.
“I do not have that knowledge, and therefore I cannot relate that knowledge,” Ensign said.
“I’m not asking for state secrets, I’m asking where one man who is wrongly and illegally deported, removed from this country [is],” Xinis said.
“Your Honor, I do not have the information provided to me that I can provide to you,” Ensign said again.
The judge decided to go ahead with Friday’s hearing after the Trump administration sought to delay the hearing until next week. The Justice Department on Friday morning asked her to reschedule the hearing for Wednesday, April 16, two days after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is scheduled to meet with the White House — but the judge, in a filing, kept the hearing date as scheduled.
Judge Xinis scheduled the hearing after the U.S. Supreme late Thursday affirmed her earlier ruling ordering the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States after he was mistakenly sent to an El Salvador prison last month.
Judge Xinis had also ordered the Trump administration to file, by 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, a supplemental declaration from an individual with personal knowledge acknowledging the current physical location of Abrego Garcia and what steps the administration will take to facilitate his immediate return.
Attorneys for DOJ requested the deadline for the supplemental declaration be moved to next week, but in her filing the judge moved the deadline back by only two hours. In response, the DOJ told Judge Xinis in a filing that they were unable to provide her the information she requested on such a short deadline.
“In light of the insufficient amount of time afforded to review the Supreme Court’s Order following the dissolution of the administrative stay in this case, Defendants are not in a position where they ‘can’ share any information requested by the Court. That is the reality,” the DOJ’s filing said.
“It is unreasonable and impracticable for Defendants to reveal potential steps before those steps are reviewed, agreed upon, and vetted,” they added. “Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday largely upheld Judge Xinis’ ruling last week ordering the Trump administration to bring Abrego Garcia back.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the Supreme Court’s unsigned order stated.
Abrego Garcia — despite having protected legal status preventing his deportation to El Salvador, where his attorneys say he escaped political violence in 2011 — was sent to that country’s notorious CECOT mega-prison following what the government said was an “administrative error.”
The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyers and his wife deny, and argued in legal filings that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the courts cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor order El Salvador to return him.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration has emphasized its role in carrying out foreign policy, which was also cited in the high court’s order.
The Supreme Court said the lower-court judge should “clarify” her earlier order “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said: “As the Supreme Court correctly recognized, it is the exclusive prerogative of the President to conduct foreign affairs. By directly noting the deference owed to the Executive Branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the President’s authority to conduct foreign policy.”
Reacting to the Supreme Court ruling, the attorney for Abrego Garcia told ABC News that “the rule of law prevailed.”
“The Supreme Court upheld the District Judge’s order that the government has to bring Kilmar home,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. “Now they need to stop wasting time and get moving.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
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