US judge to grill Trump officials over illegal deportation of man to El Salvador

Greenbelt, Maryland — A US judge on Tuesday said there was no evidence the Trump administration had tried to secure the return of a man illegally deported to El Salvador, but said she would not hold the government in contempt of court for now.

At a hearing to consider her next steps on what she called the Trump administration’s failure to update her on efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, US district judge Paula Xinis said the administration had not given her any information of value about what it had done.

“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” Xinis said at a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. “To date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing.”

Xinis said she would require the Trump administration to produce documents and have officials sit for depositions by April 23 to explain steps they have taken to secure Abrego Garcia’s return.

The case is one of several that have sparked concerns among Democrats and some legal analysts that Republican President Donald Trump’s administration is willing to disregard the judiciary, an independent and equal branch of government.

The Trump administration has accused the judiciary of overstepping and interfering with the executive branch’s ability to conduct foreign policy. Before the hearing, a crowd of protesters outside the court chanted “Bring Kilmar home,” as they listened to his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, urge the US and El Salvador to return him.

“I find myself pleading with the Trump administration and the Bukele administration to stop playing political games with the life of Kilmar,” Vasquez Sura said.

During a meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele told reporters at the White House he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the US.

“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the US?” Bukele said.

At the hearing, government lawyer Drew Ensign cited Bukele’s comments, saying “ascertaining the position” of the Salvadoran government was “an important part of compliance” with Xinis’ order.

Ensign said the administration interpreted Xinis’ order to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to mean they should remove any US barriers to his return to the US.

He said the administration had done that by having an official assert ion in a court filing earlier in the day that if Abrego Garcia were to show up at a port of entry or a US embassy, he would be allowed into the US and then immediately taken back into custody.

Xinis said that interpretation of the meaning of “facilitate” was contrary to “the plain meaning of the word”.

US senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a Democrat, said in a statement on Monday that if Abrego Garcia was not home by “midweek”, he would travel to El Salvador to discuss his release.

Xinis on April 4 ordered the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador, where he is being housed in a high-security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center.

The US Supreme Court last week upheld that order following a challenge by the Trump administration, but said the term “effectuate” was unclear and might exceed the court’s authority. Xinis then ordered the Trump administration to offer a timeline for returning Abrego Garcia to the US.

Trump has said his administration would bring the man back if the Supreme Court directed it to.

Reuters