By Blake Brittain and Tom Hals
GREENBELT, Maryland (Reuters) -A U.S. federal judge said on Friday it was “extremely troubling” that the Trump administration failed to comply with her court order to provide details on the status of a Maryland resident it illegally deported to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis demanded at a hearing that the administration identify the whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador on March 15, and update her daily on its efforts to secure his return.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019, was stopped and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on March 12 and questioned about alleged gang affiliation. He was deported on March 15 on one of three high-profile deportation flights to El Salvador that also included alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Abrego Garcia’s family sued to challenge the legality of his deportation and on April 4 Xinis ordered the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” his return. The administration challenged that order at the Supreme Court, which upheld Xinis’ order but said the term “effectuate” was unclear and may exceed the court’s authority.
The Supreme Court also said the Trump administration must take steps to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and detail the steps it has taken and will take to return him to the United States.
Xinis repeatedly pressed a government attorney for answers about what it had done to get Abrego Garcia back.
“I’m not sure what to take from the fact that the Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly and yet I can’t get an answer today about what you’ve done, if anything, in the past,” Xinis said.
Drew Ensign, an attorney with the Department of Justice, said the government would comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. He repeated what the administration had said in court filings, that it would provide that information by the end of Tuesday, once it evaluated the Supreme Court ruling.
“We simply believe that the court’s deadlines are impracticable, but that is not to say that the government is not intending to comply with the Supreme Court’s order,” Ensign said.
Xinis ordered Ensign to provide her with daily updates, even if only to say that the government intends to comply with the Supreme Court’s order but that her deadlines were unrealistic.
The Supreme Court’s ruling also said the lower court should clarify its order “with due regard for deference” to the executive branch of government.
The administration said in a court filing earlier on Friday that it was “unreasonable and impracticable” to say what its next steps are before they are properly agreed upon and vetted.
“Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review,” the filing said.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a Friday court filing “the government continues to delay, obfuscate, and flout court orders, while a man’s life and safety is at risk.”
The case highlights the administration’s tensions with federal courts. Several have blocked Trump policies and judges have expressed frustration with administration efforts to comply with court orders.
The Justice Department in a Supreme Court filing on April 7 stated that while Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador through “administrative error,” his actual removal from the United States “was not error.” The error, department lawyers wrote, was in removing him specifically to El Salvador despite the deportation protection order.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
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