Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks at a news conference in Maryland earlier this month.Jose Luis Magana/AP
On Friday, Federal District Court Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump administration had failed to comply with a court order requiring it to provide information about what it is doing to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the US government mistakenly sent to one of the world’s worst prisons in El Salvador.
When Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign appeared in federal court in Maryland earlier on Friday, he had no information to provide about what his client, the Trump administration, had done to comply with her order.
“Have they done anything?” Xinis asked, according to the Hill.
“Your honor, I don’t have personal knowledge,” Ensign replied.
“OK, so they’ve done nothing,” Xinis concluded.
As a result, Xinis held in her written ruling that the administration has “made no meaningful effort to comply” with her order, even though it is now backed up by a unanimous Supreme Court decision. The judge is now requiring the government to provide a daily status update that details where Abrego Garcia is and what the Trump administration is doing to bring him back to the United States.
How the Trump administration responds has the potential to deepen a constitutional crisis. Some of the president’s top aides, such as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have made clear that they do want Abrego Garcia to return to the United States. It remains to be seen how the courts will respond if the administration continues to stonewall.
On Friday, Trump appeared more willing to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision. “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court,” he told reporters on Air Force One. “I have great respect for the Supreme Court
The case began last month after Abrego Garcia, who is married to a US citizen and is the father of their three children, including a 5-year-old with autism, was sent to a Salvadoran megaprison in what the administration concedes was an “administrative error.” Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because an immigration judge had previously ruled that he could not be sent to the country because he was more likely than not to face persecution there.
In response to a lawsuit brought on Abrego Garcia’s behalf, Xinis ordered earlier this month that he be brought back to the United States—rejecting the Trump administration’s claim that it didn’t have to do anything to fix its mistake because Abrego Garcia was no longer in US custody. The Trump administration quickly brought an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to try to overturn Xinis’ ruling.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that largely upheld the lower court by holding that the Trump administration should “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. It added that the government should “be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
Xinis quickly followed up by ordering the government to provide information by Friday morning about the current location of Abrego Garcia, what steps it may have already taken to facilitate his return, and what additional steps it is planning to take to bring him back. But the government did not do so. As Xinis wrote in her Friday decision:
During the hearing, the Court posed straightforward questions, including: Where is Abrego Garcia right now? What steps had Defendants taken to facilitate his return while the Court’s initial order on injunctive relief was in effect…? Defendants’ counsel responded that he could not answer these questions, and at times suggested that Defendants had withheld such information from him. As a result, counsel could not confirm, and thus did not advance any evidence, that Defendants had done anything to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. This remained Defendants’ position even after this Court reminded them that the Supreme Court of the United States expressly affirmed this Court’s authority to require the Government “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
The Trump administration’s first daily update is due on Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern. It will be back in court on Tuesday.
