Trump DOJ Checkmates Judge in Latest Filing in Alleged MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Deportation Case
The Trump DOJ opposed requests in alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s motion for additional relief.
On Friday, US District Judge of the US District Court for the District of Maryland, Paula Xinis set a new hearing in the case of alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia after the Supreme Court ruled the US must facilitate his return from El Salvador.
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the US to facilitate the return of alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The ruling was unanimous. There was no dissent.
Judge Xinis slammed the Trump Administration during Friday’s hearing and demanded ‘daily updates’ on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts.
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.
“Defendants made no meaningful effort to comply. Instead, they complained that the Order is “unreasonable and impracticable,” and involves “sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review.”” – the judge wrote.
“From this court’s perspective, defendants’ contention that they could not answer these basic questions absent some nonspecific ‘vetting’ that has yet to take place, provides no basis for their lack of compliance,” she wrote.
The judge demanded daily updates on Abrego Garcia.
“Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that beginning April 12, 2025, and continuing each day thereafter until further order of the Court, Defendants shall file daily, on or before 5:00 PM ET, a declaration made by an individual with personal knowledge as to any information regarding: (1) the current physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia; (2) what steps, if any, Defendants have taken to facilitate his immediate return to the United States; (3) what additional steps Defendants will take, and when, to facilitate his return.1 A follow-up in-person hearing will be scheduled for Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at 4:00 PM,” the judge wrote.
President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he would listen to the Supreme Court.
“If the Supreme Court said, ‘bring somebody back [from deportation],’ I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court… I’m not talking about the lower court. I have great respect for the Supreme Court,” Trump said of the Abrego Garcia case.
WATCH:
TRUMP: "If the Supreme Court said, 'bring somebody back [from deportation],' I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court… I'm not talking about the lower court. I have great respect for the Supreme Court."pic.twitter.com/lPDN44j77u
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 12, 2025
The State Department on Saturday told Judge Xinis that Kilmar Agrego Garcia is “alive and secure” at the CECOT prison in El Salvador.
“It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador,” said Michael Kozak, a State Department official.
“He is alive and secure in that facility,” Kozak added. “He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a motion for three additional types of relief this weekend citing Trump’s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One.
“Yesterday, President Trump confirmed that the United States has the power to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from prison and return to the United States,” the attorneys for Abrego Garcia wrote, according to ABC News.
Garcia’s attorneys asked for the US government to be held in contempt for defying the district court’s orders (it didn’t). They also asked for the US government to fly Garcia back to Maryland and grant him parole.
The Trump DOJ responded to Garcia’s motion for additional relief and opposed his requests.
3/ Trump Administration begins noting that Court invited the Motion Garcia filed for "additional relief," and that the relief sought seeks to micromanage diplomatic relations…It does. pic.twitter.com/ov99svcmBi
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 13, 2025
The Trump DOJ said the court needs to clarify “facilitate” and “facilitate release” from prison.
5/ Trump Administration then walks Judge through what SCOTUS actually ordered which was NOT an affirmance as she and Garcia continue to inaccurately claim. Here, Trump Administration stressed points I made earlier concerning what SCOTUS said. pic.twitter.com/0yf9k5fL3R
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 13, 2025
Trump’s DOJ said Judge Xinis did not clarify what “facilitate” meant as the Supreme Court ordered her to do so DOJ lawyers explained what it means in immigration.
Trump said he doesn’t need to ask El Salvador to do anything.
“Defendants understand “facilitate” to mean what that term has long meant in the immigration context, namely actions allowing an alien to enter the United States. Taking “all available steps to facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia is thus best read as taking all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here. Indeed, no other reading of “facilitate” is tenable—or constitutional—here,” Trump’s DOJ wrote.
“On the flipside, reading “facilitate” as requiring something more than domestic measures would not only flout the Supreme Court’s order, but also violate the separation of powers. The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” the Trump DOJ said.
8/ WHOA! Given that Judge did not clarify what "facilitate" meant, as SCOTUS required her to do, Trump says here's what it means in immigration context and that is what it must mean to be respectful of Article II authority. THIS IS HUGE: Trump is saying he doesn't pic.twitter.com/DoIAYJrTdv
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 13, 2025
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