Latest news with #JudgePaulaXinis
New York Times
6 hours ago
- General
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Newark's Mayor Sues Over Arrest Near Immigration Jail
The entrance to the Salvadoran prison where Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is being held. The tensions between the court and the Trump administration over the case could soon come to a head. In case after case, the Trump administration has taken a similar approach to the numerous legal challenges that have emerged in recent weeks to President Trump's aggressive deportation plans. Over and over, officials have either violated orders or used an array of obfuscations and delays to prevent federal judges from deciding whether violations took place. So far, no one in the White House or any federal agency has had to pay a price for this obstructionist behavior, but penalties could still be in the offing. Three judges in three different courthouses who have been overseeing deportation cases have said they are considering whether to hold the administration in contempt. All of this first came to the fore when Judge Paula Xinis opened an investigation in mid-April into whether Trump officials had violated her order to 'facilitate' the release of a Maryland man who had been wrongfully deported to a prison in El Salvador. In a sternly worded ruling in Federal District Court in Maryland, Judge Xinis instructed the Justice Department to tell her what steps the White House had taken, and planned to take, to free the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, from Salvadoran custody. And she wanted answers quickly, declaring that her inquiry would take only two weeks. That was seven weeks ago, and lawyers for Mr. Abrego Garcia say they are no closer now than they were then to understanding why their client was sent to El Salvador or what the government has done to fix what officials have acknowledged was an 'administrative error.' Image Chris Newman, right, a lawyer for Mr. Abrego Garcia's family, with Senator Chris Van Hollen in El Salvador in April. Mr. Abrego Garcia's lawyers have accused the Trump administration of 'a pattern of deliberate delay.' Credit... Daniele Volpe for The New York Times Instead, the lawyers say, the Justice Department has hidden what it knows about Mr. Abrego Garcia's deportation behind repeated claims of privilege. They have also said that the department has offered witnesses for depositions who have little firsthand knowledge of the case and has sought at every turn to slow-walk disclosing documents and responding to questions. 'It is reflective of a pattern of deliberate delay and bad faith refusal to comply with court orders,' they wrote in a filing late last week. 'The patina of promises by government lawyers to do tomorrow that which they were already obligated to do yesterday has worn thin.' Such recalcitrance has left lawyers in the Justice Department who are working on these cases in a difficult position. Several times during hearings in the past few months, the lawyers have had to admit to federal judges that their 'clients' in agencies like the Department of Homeland Security have simply refused to provide the information they were asked for. After one of those lawyers, Erez Reuveni, admitted to Judge Xinis during a hearing in April that he was frustrated by how he could not fully answer her questions, the Justice Department responded to his candor by suspending and then firing him. His dismissal prompted a spate of resignations from the department's Office of Immigration Litigation, which has effectively been hollowed out by the administration's give-no-ground approach. In many ways, the intransigent tactics used in these deportation cases echo those employed by the defense lawyers who represented Mr. Trump in the four criminal cases he faced before he was re-elected. In those cases, only one of which survived to go to trial, the lawyers used every means at their disposal to gum up the works: They challenged minor matters, filed appeals at every turn and repeatedly asked judges for delays. Two of those lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove III, now occupy top positions in the Justice Department. Last week, Mr. Trump said he would nominate Mr. Bove to be an appeals court judge. Image The government's tactics in the deportation cases echo those used by President Trump's former defense lawyers, including Todd Blanche, left, and Emil Bove III, center, who are now high-ranking officials at the Justice Department. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times It remains unclear for now how Judge Xinis intends to handle the department's stubbornness in Mr. Abrego Garcia's case, but the tensions could soon come to a head. Just last week, one day before it was supposed to submit its final answers to her questions, the administration asked for a two-week extension, saying that lawyers for the Justice Department had 'expended significant resources' going through the materials she requested. Responding to her demands, the lawyers wrote, had been 'extremely burdensome,' especially, they noted, because the department — the government equivalent of a giant white-shoe law firm — was hindered by 'limited staff available for document review.' Judge Xinis denied the request on the same day it was made. She is not the only judge to have faced obstructions by the Trump administration. One day after Judge Xinis began her investigation in Maryland, a federal judge in Washington, James E. Boasberg, threatened to open a similar inquiry into a violation of an order he had issued in a different deportation case. In that case, Judge Boasberg said he was considering contempt proceedings to punish the administration for failing to comply with his instructions in March to stop planes of Venezuelan migrants from being sent to El Salvador. One week later, another federal judge in Maryland, Stephanie A. Gallagher, issued a ruling that echoed what Judge Xinis had decided in the Abrego Garcia case. Judge Gallagher told the Trump administration to 'facilitate' the return of a different immigrant — a young Venezuelan man known only as Cristian — who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador on the same set of flights as Mr. Abrego Garcia. But in the days that followed, Judge Gallagher confronted a familiar pattern of evasion and delay. First, the judge looked on as the Justice Department lost its bid to have a federal appeals court put her order on hold. Then, in the wake of that defeat, she ordered the administration to give her an update on the steps it had taken to seek Cristian's release. Image Recalcitrance from the Justice Department has left its lawyers who are working on deportation cases in a difficult position. Credit... Eric Lee/The New York Times When the Justice Department filed its update last week (late, as it turned out), it was largely based on a declaration by a federal immigration official that included no new details about the case. The declaration merely repeated facts that everyone already knew: that Cristian was in the custody of El Salvador and that homeland security officials had asked the State Department for help in complying with the judge's initial order. Displeased by all of this, Judge Gallagher fired off a new decision on Wednesday, accusing the administration of having 'utterly disregarded' her order for an update. She gave Trump officials until 5 p.m. on Monday to send another version. And just before that deadline, the Justice Department filed a new declaration from the same immigration official, asserting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was 'personally handling discussions with the government of El Salvador' concerning Cristian. 'Secretary Rubio has read and understands this court's order,' the declaration said, 'and wants to assure this court that he is committed to making prompt and diligent efforts on behalf of the United States to comply with that order.' But in a dueling submission to Judge Gallagher, Cristian's lawyers said the Trump administration had yet to take any steps to bring their client back. The lawyers asked her to hold a hearing with testimony from 'key decision maker(s)' as to why and to punish officials, if needed, with a finding of contempt. Less than two weeks ago, a federal judge in Boston, Brian E. Murphy, said he might seek contempt sanctions himself against the administration after determining that Trump officials had violated one of his orders by putting a group of immigrants on a deportation flight to Africa with less than one day's notice. In April, Judge Murphy expressly forbade such a move, issuing a ruling that barred officials from deporting people to countries not their own without first giving them a 'meaningful opportunity' to object. Judge Murphy stopped short of following the path his colleagues took and ordering the government to 'facilitate' the return of the deported men. Instead, he took the advice of a Justice Department lawyer who suggested the administration could fix the problem it had created by providing the men with hearings in Africa at which they could challenge their removal. Not surprisingly, Judge Murphy seemed a bit confused and more than a little outraged just days later when department lawyers asked him to reconsider this solution, claiming that he had imposed it on the White House and that it was more cumbersome than they had initially imagined. Judge Murphy had to remind the lawyers that the whole proposal had been their idea, not his. 'Defendants have mischaracterized this court's order,' he wrote last week, 'while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry.'
The Independent
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Judge spars with Trump administration over release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia: ‘My head is spinning'
More than a month after the Supreme Court agreed that Donald Trump 's administration must be ordered to 'facilitate' the release of a wrongfully deported Salvadoran immigrant, the government is refusing to do so — and arguing with a federal judge that they don't have to. The weeks-long court battle is leaving a judge's head 'spinning,' Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis told attorneys on Friday. Last month, Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed that the government's removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was 'illegal.' Now, government attorneys are sparring with Judge Xinis to try to conceal what, if anything, the administration is doing to return him, and why that information needs to be kept secret. Meanwhile, administration officials are 'shouting from the rooftops' in public about ensuring that Abrego Garcia never returns to the United States, according to his attorneys. 'He will never walk freely in the U.S.,' Department of Justice lawyer Jonathan Guynn told District Judge Paula Xinis in a Maryland courtroom on Friday. 'That sounds to me like an admission you will not take steps' to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return,' Xinis replied. 'That's about as clear as it can get,' said Gyunn. Despite government attorneys and the White House admitting that Abrego Garcia was deported from Maryland 'due to an administrative error,' the Justice Department is now clashing with its own determination — and multiple court rulings from federal judges in the Supreme Court — about the legality of his removal. 'Abrego Garcia was removed without lawful authority — you conceded it,' Xinis told Justice Department lawyers on Friday. 'Not to split hairs with your honor, but he was removed lawfully,' Guynn said. 'He shouldn't be in the United States.' 'He was removed in error,' Xinis replied. Guynn later conceded that he was reported in 'error' but said it did not rise to government 'misconduct.' Government attorneys have produced more than 1,400 documents in the case, but Abrego Garcia's legal team has only received 164, most of which are photocopies of their own filings. 'My head is spinning,' Xinis told the court at one point. Lawyers for Abrego Garcia's family asked the judge to keep the government on 'as tight a leash as possible' to ensure the administration is responding to court-ordered questions. Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager in 2011 and was working as a sheet-metal apprentice in Maryland, where he has been living with his wife and 5-year-old child, both U.S. citizens. The couple is also raising two other children from a previous relationship. After a traffic stop in March, he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and then deported to El Salvador's brutal Terrorism Confinement Center. He was later moved to another prison designed to imprison non-gang members. Trump's allies and administration officials have repeatedly sought to justify his detention over allegations of criminal activity and gang membership, which were raised only after he was summarily deported. Democrats and legal analysts argue the administration could return Abrego Garcia and then use that alleged evidence against him in normal immigration court removal hearings, but the government is refusing to do so. Instead, Justice Department lawyers and Trump administration officials have raised a 'state secrets' privilege to try to avoid answering questions about the government's relationship with El Salvador and conversations about the arrangements among officials. Abrego Garcia's lawyers argued that the government hasn't shown even 'the slightest effort' to fulfill court orders to retrieve him, and even cited Trump's interview last month with ABC News in which he said he could bring Abrego Garcia back but won't. On Friday, Xinis described the government's reasoning for withholding that information as 'take my word for it.' 'There's simply no details,' she said. 'This is basically 'take my word for it.''
Bloomberg
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Abrego Garcia Judge Frustrated at US Failure to Answer Questions
A federal judge repeatedly expressed frustration Friday at the Trump administration's failure to answer her questions about what it is doing to facilitate the return of a Maryland resident wrongly deported to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador. US District Judge Paula Xinis held a hearing to press Justice Department lawyers on whether the government can invoke legal privileges to avoid answering questions about its efforts to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the US.
Reuters
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Court hears new arguments over Trump's efforts to return wrongly deported man
May 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday will weigh claims that President Donald Trump's administration is improperly failing to provide details about its efforts to return a man to Maryland after he was wrongfully deported to a prison in El Salvador. The hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland marks the latest court test for the Trump administration's deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose return U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis and the U.S. Supreme Court have both ordered the government to "facilitate," amid concerns that the administration has been failing to comply with her orders. Xinis will hold the hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1800 GMT) to consider the government's argument that the details Abrego Garcia's attorneys seek are confidential state secrets. His lawyers contend that the administration is wrongly concealing the information. "Even as the government speaks freely about Abrego Garcia in public, in this litigation it insists on secrecy," his attorneys said in a court filing on Monday. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador on March 15 despite an order protecting him from removal. His case has sparked concerns among Democrats and some legal analysts that Trump's administration is willing to disregard the judiciary, an independent and equal branch of government. Xinis last month ordered the administration to provide more information about what it was doing to secure Abrego Garcia's return. She previously said that the administration had not given her any information of value about its efforts. Administration officials have accused courts of interfering with the executive branch's ability to conduct foreign policy. They have invoked the state secrets privilege, a legal doctrine that allows the government to block the disclosure of information that could harm national security interests, to conceal details about its efforts to return Abrego Garcia. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a court filing this week that Abrego Garcia's lawyers have "all the information they need" to confirm that it has complied with the court's order on his return.
CBS News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Abrego Garcia's attorneys say Trump administration has "stonewalled" in facilitating his release
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who the Trump administration admitted was mistakenly included in a group of accused gang members sent to a prison in El Salvador, accused the government of having "stonewalled" the court-ordered facilitation of his return to the U.S. "Plaintiffs have sought discovery to uncover the truth as to the Government's efforts (or lack thereof) as well as its abilities to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return—the essential issue in this case. Over and over, the Government has stonewalled Plaintiffs by asserting unsupported privileges— primarily state secrets and deliberative process—to withhold written discovery and to instruct witnesses not to answer even basic questions," the filing, published late Monday, says. "Even as the Government speaks freely about Abrego Garcia in public, in this litigation it insists on secrecy." U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered in April that the government must facilitate his release, a ruling that has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Last week, the Trump administration appears to have invoked the state secrets privilege and other privileges to withhold information in the case from Abrego Garcia's attorneys as they continue to seek his release. The Justice Department had indicated last month that it would invoke certain privileges to protect information regarding Abrego Garcia's removal from the U.S., citing in a filing the attorney-client privilege, state secrets privilege and certain executive privileges. The government's response to the allegations of stonewalling and their invocation of privilege were filed under seal with the court. Abrego Garcia's attorneys said there is "little reason to believe" that invoking the state secrets privilege is appropriate in this case. "No military or intelligence operations are involved, and it defies reason to imagine that the United States' relationship with El Salvador would be endangered by any effort to seek the return of a wrongfully deported person who the Government admits never should have been removed to El Salvador in the first place," Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote. Xinis has set a hearing for May 16 to hear further arguments about the government's privilege invocations, as well as to hear arguments from Abrego Garcia's attorneys on their desire for more fact-finding in the case. Xinis told a Justice Department attorney during a hearing last month that if the Trump administration does assert privileges, justifications must be provided for each claim, and she will make a determination as to whether they can stand. The Trump administration has invoked the state secrets privilege before, in a case involving the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to the Salvadoran prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, under war powers In Abrego Garcia's case, Xinis had ordered the Trump administration to turn over documents to his lawyers and allowed them to conduct depositions with certain administration officials. Some of the records were initially due last month, but Xinis agreed to push back her deadlines after the Trump administration filed information with the court under seal. One day earlier, Xinis had accused the administration of showing a "willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations." Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote that all depositions were completed by the end of last week, but said they are not satisfied with the answers they have received. President Trump and other top administration officials have repeatedly said it is up to El Salvador whether to release Abrego Garcia, who had been held at CECOT. As of April 21, he was being held at a lower-security facility in Santa Ana, according to a declaration from a State Department official. Abrego Garcia, who was born in El Salvador, entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and has been living in Maryland since then. He was granted a withholding of removal, a legal status, in 2019 that prevented the government from deporting him back to his home country of El Salvador because of a risk of persecution by local gangs. But Abrego Garcia was among the hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, sent by the Trump administration to CECOT in March. "The Court should reject the Government's efforts to hide behind the state secrets privilege and compel all Defendants from DHS and DOJ to fully respond to written discovery and all deponents from those departments to fully answer deposition questions," the attorneys wrote to Judge Xinis, adding later that "the state secrets privilege is not for hiding governmental blunders or malfeasance."
