Federal judge blasts Trump administration for stonewalling in deportation case
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A federal judge in Maryland is losing her patience with the Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis accused the administration last night of intentionally flouting her order to answer questions about the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And she gave the government a deadline of this evening to provide more details about what it's doing to seek Abrego Garcia's return from El Salvador. NPR's Joel Rose is here with the latest. Joel, how did we get to this latest impasse?
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hi. Yeah, three federal courts have now told the Trump administration to seek the return of Abrego Garcia from Judge Xinis in Maryland all the way up to the Supreme Court, which said the administration should facilitate the release of Abrego Garcia and handle the case as it would if the government had not improperly flown him to El Salvador last month. Xinis ordered daily status updates on the administration's progress, but she found the government's responses vague and unsatisfying. So she then ordered an intense two-week inquiry into what the administration is doing to seek his release.
SHAPIRO: And what is the White House argument for not bringing him back as the Supreme Court has ordered?
ROSE: In court filings, the Justice Department has admitted that he was deported because of a, quote, "administrative error." But the White House says he is in the custody of El Salvador, so the courts cannot order his return to the U.S. The White House has also tried to portray Abrego Garcia as a member of the gang MS-13 and as a danger to the public. But as Judge Xinis notes, they've offered no proof of that in court. Abrego Garcia has no criminal record. He originally did enter the U.S. illegally, but an immigration judge in 2019 granted him a form of protection that should have prevented his deportation to El Salvador. Since then, he has been living quietly in Maryland with his wife and their three children until he was arrested by ICE last month and flown to El Salvador.
SHAPIRO: OK, so the judge has once again ordered the administration to answer questions in a process known as discovery. What's been the response?
ROSE: The Justice Department responded with more stonewalling. Lawyers for Abrego Garcia wrote to the judge yesterday complaining that the DOJ had produced nothing of substance. Several times, the Justice Department refused to answer questions, saying they were based on the, quote, "false premise" that the government had been ordered to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from custody. Although, to be clear, that is exactly what the Supreme Court said.
Judge Xinis blasted the DOJ for that mischaracterization. In a scathing order last night, Xinis accused the Justice Department of, quote, "a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations." She rejected as specious the government's argument that providing more information would risk revealing state secrets. And she said the administration has been hiding behind, quote, "vague and unsubstantiated" claims of privilege to evade her orders. And she said, quote, "that ends now."
SHAPIRO: If the judge keeps saying you can't keep stonewalling me and the administration keeps stonewalling, where does this go?
ROSE: Judge Xinis has given the Trump administration a deadline of this evening to provide more detailed answers, including who authorized Abrego Garcia's initial placement in a Salvadoran mega prison and what evidence the Trump administration has that he is a member of MS-13. We also know that lawyers for Abrego Garcia were scheduled to depose two Trump administration officials this week. But we seem to be moving closer and closer to open defiance of the courts, and it is not just this case. This is very similar to what we're seeing in another deportation case involving more than a hundred Venezuelan migrants, who were flown to El Salvador under a wartime power known as the Alien Enemies Act without a chance to contest the allegation that they are gang members. The judge in that case has threatened the Trump administration with criminal contempt proceedings, although that is temporarily on hold. And it seems likely that we are headed in the same direction in the Abrego Garcia case now as well.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Joel Rose. Thank you.
ROSE: You're welcome.
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