The Trump Administration refused to back down to the federal judge in the case of deported MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national who was illegally residing in Maryland. In 2019, an immigration judge ordered Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the dangerous MS-13 gang, removed from the US.
Trump’s DHS made it clear to Judge Xinis on Tuesday: If Abrego Garcia arrives on US soil, he will be deported to El Salvador again.
On Friday Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, demanded the Trump Administration provide ‘daily updates’ on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts after the Supreme Court ruled the government should ‘facilitate’ his release.
The judge said the Trump Admin has made “no meaningful effort to comply” with her order demanding the physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia.
The Trump DOJ is currently arguing the meaning of ‘facilitate’ as it relates to immigration cases in response to the Supreme Court order.
Earlier Tuesday attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia demanded the Trump Administration ‘comply’ with the Supreme Court order and release the MS-13 gang member from the CECOT prison.
The attorneys said, “There is no evidence that anyone has requested the release of Abrego Garcia.”
The Justice Department hit back and said the US will deport Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador if he makes his way to a US port of entry.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department once again told Judge Xinis that “Abrego Garcia is being held in the sovereign, domestic custody of the independent nation of El Salvador. DHS does not have the authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”
The DOJ told the judge that if Abrego Garcia finds his way back to a US port of entry he will be removed.
“I have been authorized to represent that if Abrego Garcia does present at a port of entry, he would become subject to detention by DHS. In that case, DHS would take him into custody in the United States and either remove him to a third country or terminate his withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and remove him to El Salvador,” DHS Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara told the judge.
The DHS counsel also quoted El Salvador President Bukele’s Oval Office comments from Monday: “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.”
DOJ provides no new information on Abrego Garcia but says if he manages to return to the US, they’ll detain him and remove him to a different country (not El Salvador) or seek to “terminate” his order of removal and send him back to El Salvador…
which is the lawful process.… pic.twitter.com/0OOw8yr363
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 15, 2025
During a hearing on Tuesday Judge Xinis to buckle up for “two weeks of intensive discovery.”
MORE: XINIS says to buckle up for “two weeks of intensive discovery.”
“We’re going to do this by the federal rules of civil procedure. So no press release is going to move the court the same way that sworn, under oath testimony from persons with knowledge … if you have…
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 15, 2025
Judge Xinis told everyone to clear their schedules for the next two weeks so she can issue a ruling.
AND WE’RE DONE: Hearing over. Judge Xinis says she’s ready to move quickly to get the facts so she can rule on what must be done. Going to be a busy two weeks.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 15, 2025
The post SHOWDOWN: Trump Admin Refuses to Back Down to Obama Judge in Latest Court Filing in Abrego Garcia Case – Judge Orders “Intense” Two Week Inquiry appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.