A federal judge said Tuesday she will require depositions from Trump administration officials about efforts to return a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador — despite a court order barring his removal.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March and is now imprisoned in his home country. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the federal government to facilitate his return.
During a hearing in U.S. District Court, Judge Paula Xinis expressed frustration with the Justice Department’s handling of the case and said the government had yet to show what steps it had taken to comply with her prior orders.
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Government attorneys argued that the court could not direct the executive branch to take actions involving a foreign government. But Xinis rejected that reasoning.
“I am not doing that," she said.
The government also submitted a transcript of El Salvador’s president stating he could not return Abrego Garcia due to alleged ties to MS-13, but the judge said that still failed to answer what the U.S. government had done to facilitate his return.
The government now has until April 23 to submit those sworn depositions.
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Attorneys for Abrego Garcia called the ruling a win.
"This is still a win, and this is still progress in the case," one of the attorneys said outside the courthouse. "We're not done yet, though. We need to keep applying pressure and keep pushing back."
