After a scathing rebuke, judge grants DOJ an extension in deportation case

WASHINGTON – A federal judge agreed to give the Trump administration another week to answer detailed questions about the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis issued a scathing rebuke of the administration’s response to her order for more details about its efforts to return him to the U.S.

But the Trump administration asked for more time to respond in the case of the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador last month in an “administrative error” despite court protections.

Despite the temporary reprieve, the standoff between the White House and the federal courts may still be heading for a reckoning. In a scathing order Tuesday evening, Judge Xinis accused the Justice Department of willful refusal to comply with her order and attempting to “obstruct” discovery after receiving what she characterized as vague and unsatisfying responses to her demand for information on efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

“Defendants have failed to respond in good faith, and their refusal to do so can only be viewed as willful and intentional noncompliance,” Xinis wrote.

“That ends now,” Judge Xinis declared as she rejected the administration’s arguments so far as “specious” and condemned their “mischaracterization” of the Supreme Court’s directive to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

In response, Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign filed a sealed motion on Wednesday requesting a seven-day stay of the judge’s directive for the U.S. to provide testimony and documents.

The White House continues to insist, without providing solid evidence, that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, the Salvadoran gang that the Trump administration has recently declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization. White House border czar Tom Homan defended the administration’s handling of the Abrego Garcia case.

“We removed an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, wife-beater, designated terrorist from the United States,” Homan told reporters on Wednesday. “He’s home. He’s a citizen of El Salvador, a native of El Salvador who had due process despite what you’re hearing.”

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers and family strenuously dispute that he’s a gang member, saying the allegation is based on flimsy evidence, and note that Abrego Garcia has no criminal record.

Judge Xinis said the Trump administration must answer questions about who authorized Abrego Garcia’s placement in a Salvadoran prison and provide evidence supporting claims that he belongs to MS-13 – an allegation the judge noted remains unsubstantiated in court.
 
This case has now traveled through three federal courts, including the Supreme Court, which ordered the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release and handle the case as if the improper deportation had never occurred. Yet the Justice Department continues to resist, arguing in court filings that since Abrego Garcia is now in El Salvador’s custody, American courts cannot order his return.

The administration also says, according to a court filing Tuesday, that it has taken additional steps to comply. But the justice department lawyers have invoked a variety of legal confidentiality protections including state secrets privilege and attorney-client privilege, among others.

Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month told Fox News that Abrego Garcia “is not coming back to our country.”

Court documents show that Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally but was granted protection by an immigration judge in 2019 that should have prevented his deportation. He had been living quietly in Maryland with his wife and three children and working in construction until Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested and deported him last month.

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia complained Tuesday that despite the court-ordered discovery process, the government had produced “nothing of substance” and repeatedly refused to answer questions based on what the administration called the “false premise” that the administration must facilitate his release. In fact, that is exactly what the Supreme Court ordered.

Judge Xinis dismissed the government’s state secrets argument, writing that the administration has been hiding behind “vague” and “unsubstantiated” claims of privilege to evade her orders.

Multiple federal courts have already weighed in on this case. In a remarkable opinion, appeals court Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said the government’s argument “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”

“The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not,” wrote Wilkinson, a conservative judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. “Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.”

The case parallels another ongoing legal battle involving more than 100 Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador under the wartime Alien Enemies Act without opportunities to contest allegations they were gang members. In that case, federal judge James Boasberg has already threatened criminal contempt proceedings against administration officials.

Legal experts watching both cases suggest the judiciary and executive branch are headed toward a constitutional showdown, with judges’ patience wearing thin as the administration appears to be moving closer to open defiance of the court’s orders.