Frustrated judge blasts Trump team over deportation plans for Kilmar Abrego Garcia: ‘Like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall'
Abrego Garcia, whose case has been at the center of Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, is currently locked up in federal custody ahead of a trial on smuggling charges.
If he's released from pretrial detention, immigration officials intend to arrest and deport him, again, before a trial even begins, according to the Department of Justice.
After government lawyers and top Trump administration officials gave a series of conflicting statements about the fate of Abrego Garcia in recent weeks, District Judge Paula Xinis is ordering officials from the Department of Homeland Security to testify about their plans for his removal — answers that may reveal whether the criminal charges against him had anything to do with complying with court orders for his return.
She scheduled a hearing on July 7. Abrego Garcia could be released from federal custody and turned over to Homeland Security as soon as July 16.
During a hearing in Maryland on Monday, Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn said the administration doesn't intend to hold Abrego Garcia in 'limbo' with Immigration and Customs Enforcement while waiting for his criminal trial.
'He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process,' he said.
His remarks are the latest in a series of conflicting public statements from the administration after Abrego Garcia was abruptly returned to the United States from prisons in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland with his wife and child, both U.S. citizens, along with two other children from a previous relationship, when he was arrested and deported to El Salvador on March 15 — what government lawyers admitted was an 'administrative error' that defied an immigration judge's 2019 order preventing his removal.
But the administration spent weeks battling court orders from federal judges and the Supreme Court to 'facilitate' his return, claiming that they were powerless to return him while administration officials publicly asserted he would never again step foot in the United States.
Last month, he was flown back to face a criminal indictment accusing him of illegally transporting immigrants across the country. He has pleaded not guilty.
'Our plan is, he will be taken into ICE custody and removal proceedings will be initiated,' Guynn said during a court hearing last week.
But that same day, a spokesperson for the Justice Department told the Associated Press that the government will try Abrego Garcia on the charges against him before deporting him from the country. The White House also called the Justice Department's in-court statements 'fake news.'
On Monday, Justice Department said they don't know where the government plans to deport him.
'It's like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall trying to figure out what's going to happen,' Judge Xinis said at one point on Monday.
'For three months, your clients told the world they weren't going to do anything to bring him back,' she said, pointing to statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the president himself.
'Am I really supposed to ignore all that?' she said.
She also said she finds it 'highly problematic' that the Justice Department can't seem to answer whether government lawyers knew about the criminal investigation against him while battling in court over his wrongful removal.
'This time, Judge Xinis was not willing to let government lawyers say, 'We don't really know,'' Abrego Garcia's attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters on Monday.
'If they want to deport him to a third country, they need to name that country, and they need to describe the process by which they're going to give him due process,' he said.
The Supreme Court has paved the way for the Trump administration to deport immigrants to so-called third nations that aren't their home countries after a legal battle involving a group of deportees sent to war-torn South Sudan, where attorneys said the men face torture, abuse and death.
Last week, Abrego Garcia's attorneys said he experienced 'severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture' at a brutal prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has deported dozens of alleged gang members.
Abrego Garcia must receive an opportunity to make a case before an immigration judge to explain why he shouldn't return there or any other country where he faces risk of torture and abuse, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
'Since day one of this case, the government's strategy has been to send lawyers to court with no information or insufficient information,' he added. 'It's the result of a deliberate strategy not to communicate with lawyers in court.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Colorado prosecutors to lay out evidence in firebomb attack on demonstration for Israeli hostages
Colorado prosecutors are set to lay out their evidence Tuesday against a man charged with murder, attempted murder and other crimes in a firebomb attack on demonstrators showing their support for Israeli hostages in Gaza. Investigators say Mohamed Sabry Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall on June 1. But he threw just two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, 'Free Palestine!" Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before. Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, had been living in the U.S. illegally with his family. The purpose of Tuesday's preliminary hearing in state court in Boulder is for District Judge Nancy Woodruff Salomone to determine if there's enough evidence for Soliman to go on trial there. Soliman already faced dozens of charges in state court as well as hate crime charges in federal court when state prosecutors added murder charges following the death of an 82-year-old woman who was injured in the attack died as the result of her injuries. Karen Diamond helped at her synagogue and volunteered for several local groups, including the University of Colorado University Women's Club and a local music festival. Last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Cramer-Babycz told U.S. District Judge John L. Kane that federal prosecutors have not decided yet whether to file additional charges against Soliman related to Diamond's death. Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. But Soliman's federal defense lawyers say he should not have been charged with hate crimes because the evidence shows he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel. An attack motivated by someone's political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law. Soliman has pleaded not guilty to the hate crime charges. He has not been asked to enter a plea to the state charges yet. State prosecutors have identified 29 people who are considered victims of the attack, including 13 who were physically injured. The others were nearby and are considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, so Soliman has also been charged with animal cruelty. Tuesday's hearing was set to move ahead over the objections of Soliman's state public defenders, who asked to delay it after Diamond died and Soliman was charged with murder. In a court filing last week, they said they were not aware of an autopsy report being done for Diamond yet and asked to delay the hearing until October so they would be be able to review 'significant medical records' in advance.
Sky News
24 minutes ago
- Sky News
Tesla faces rare trial over death of young woman hit by electric car on Autopilot
A jury will decide whether Tesla is partly to blame for the death of a young woman who was hit by an electric car on Autopilot. Naibel Benavides was stargazing at the time of the collision, which sent her flying 22m (75ft) through the air in Florida. Her boyfriend was seriously injured in the 2019 incident, while her body was discovered in a wooded area. George McGee, the Tesla's driver, is not a plaintiff - and reached a separate settlement with the victims' families. Lawyers argue that the car's driver assistance feature should have warned the driver and braked before the collision. It is alleged the Model S sedan blew through red flights and a stop sign at nearly 70mph. But Tesla claims that the driver is solely to blame because he had reached down to pick up a dropped mobile phone at the time. In a statement, the company said: "The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla's Autopilot technology. "Instead, like so many unfortunate accidents since cell phones were invented, this was caused by a distracted driver." Past cases against Tesla have been dismissed or settled, making this jury trial rare. Improvements to the company's driver assistance and partial self-driving features have been made in recent years - but in 2023, 2.3 million Tesla vehicles were recalled amid fears Autopilot was failing to sufficiently alert drivers not paying attention to the road. According to Sky's US partner network NBC News, Elon Musk was not in court as jury selection took place on Monday. Three potential jurors said they would struggle to be fair and impartial to Tesla because of the company's "ethics and ownership". After the jury was selected, a lawyer representing the victims said: "Evidence will show for years before and after this crime, Tesla ignored warnings." They added: "This is a case about shared responsibility. Tesla will take no responsibility for the failures of their Autopilot system. Evidence will show that every actor needs a stage and Tesla set the stage for the preventable actions that bring us here." The jury was also told that evidence will be introduced where Musk publicly declared that Tesla vehicles were "safer than a human".
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Florida man who killed 2 people outside a bar is scheduled to be executed
A man who fatally shot a man and woman outside a Florida bar as part of an attempted revenge killing is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday. Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith. Bell would be the eighth person put to death in Florida this year, with a ninth scheduled for later this month. The state executed six people in 2023, but carried out only one execution last year. Twenty-five men have already been executed in the U.S. this year, tying last year's total. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. Alabama has executed three people, Oklahoma has killed two, and Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee each have killed one. In December 1993, Bell spotted what he thought was the car of the man who fatally shot his brother earlier that year, according to court records. Bell was apparently unaware that the man had sold the car to West. Bell called on two friends and armed himself with an AK-47 rifle, authorities said. They found the car parked outside a liquor lounge and waited. When West, Smith and another woman eventually exited the club, Bell approached the car and opened fire, officials said. West died at the scene, and Smith died on the way to the hospital. The other woman escaped injury. Witnesses said Bell also fired at a crowd of onlookers before fleeing the area. He was eventually arrested the next year. Bell was later convicted of three additional murders. He fatally shot a woman and her toddler son in 1989, and he killed his mother's boyfriend about four months before the attack on West and Smith, officials said. Attorneys for Bell have filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawyers argued in their state filing that Bell's execution should be halted because of newly discovered evidence about witness testimony. But justices unanimously rejected the argument last week and pointed to overwhelming evidence of Bell's guilt in a 54-page opinion. Bell's attorneys filed a similar petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, but the panel has not yet issued a ruling.
