A federal judge on Wednesday again directed the Trump administration to provide information about its efforts so far, if any, to comply with her order to retrieve Kilmar Ábrego García from an El Salvador prison.
The US district judge Paula Xinis in Maryland temporarily halted her directive for information at the administration’s request last week. But with the seven-day pause expiring at 5pm, she set May deadlines for officials to provide sworn testimony on anything they have done to return Ábrego García to the US.
Ábrego García, 29, has been imprisoned in his native El Salvador for nearly seven weeks, while his mistaken deportation has become a flashpoint for Donald Trump’s immigration policies and his increasing friction with the US courts.
The president acknowledged to ABC News on Tuesday that he could call El Salvador’s president and have Ábrego García sent back. But Trump doubled down on his claims that Ábrego García is a member of the MS-13 gang.
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump told ABC’s Terry Moran in the Oval Office.
Police in Maryland had identified Ábrego García as an MS-13 gang member in 2019 based on his tattoos, his Chicago Bulls hoodie and the word of a criminal informant. But Ábrego García was never charged. His attorneys say the informant claimed Ábrego García was in an MS-13 chapter in New York, where he has never lived.
The gang identification by local police prompted the Trump administration to expel him in March to an infamous Salvadorian prison. But the deportation violated a US immigration judge’s order in 2019 that protected him from being sent to El Salvador.
Ábrego García had demonstrated to the immigration court that he probably faced persecution by local Salvadorian gangs that terrorized him and his family, court records state. He fled to the US at 16 and lived in Maryland for about 14 years, working construction, getting married and raising three children.
Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return him nearly a month ago, on 4 April. The supreme court ruled on 10 April that the administration must facilitate his return.
But the case only became more heated. Xinis lambasted a government lawyer who could not explain what, if anything, the Trump administration had done. She then ordered officials to provide sworn testimony and other information to document their efforts.
The Trump administration appealed. But a federal appeals court backed Xinis’s order for information in a blistering ruling, saying: “[W]e shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision.”
The Trump administration resisted, saying the information Xinis sought involved protected state secrets and government deliberations. She in turn scolded government lawyers for ignoring her orders and acting in “bad faith”.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
