‘Like nailing Jell-O to a wall’: Judge blasts DOJ over botched deportation case
The Justice Department was dodging straight answers when lawyers appeared before Judge Paula Xinis on Monday in the case involving Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador due to "clerical error," ABC News reported.
Xinis hammered the Justice Department during the morning session, pressing lawyers for answers on discrepancies in their timeline.
WUSA reporter Jordan Fischer posted updates on X about the morning hearing, noting that the DOJ lawyer Jonathan Guynn confessed that the goal is to try and deport Ábrego to a third country.
When the judge asked which country, the DOJ lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, replied that it had not been determined yet.
"So, how do you know he’s going to be deported to a third country if you don’t know what country he’s going to be deported to? Don’t you need assurances from that country?" the judge asked.
Guynn said the U.S. has treaties with several countries to accept deported migrants.
It "appears Judge Xinis is going to order the Trump administration to make someone available to testify about the plans to remove Abrego Garcia," reported Fischer.
"It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall, trying to figure out what’s going to happen next week," the judge said.
In the case of Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor who ICE captured, the DOJ claimed it doesn't apply to the Maryland case because he "was in Virginia when his habeas petition was filed." That's what makes the two cases different, he claimed. Fischer noted that it was "the exact opposite argument DOJ made in that case."
"Dr. Suri was on a plane either flying to or just landing in Louisiana at the time his habeas petition was filed, as the facts in that case established," said Fischer.
Xinis closed the hearing, demanding testimony from a Homeland Security official "who can speak about the process to deport Ábrego García to a third country."