The legal battle over the Trump administration's efforts — or lack thereof — to return a mistakenly deported Maryland migrant may eventually wind up back before the Supreme Court as President Trump tests the limits of his executive power.
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia already reached the high court, but on Tuesday, it was the centerpiece of a tense hearing in Greenbelt, Md., where U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said the Justice Department's foot-dragging means she will now seek sworn depositions from federal officials "to determine whether you are abiding by the court order. My court orders."
The judge has appeared exasperated since last week, when Abrego Garcia's limbo as a migrant without U.S. legal status landed back in her court after the Supreme Court largely endorsed her order that the administration work to bring him back to the U.S.
Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday suggested the U.S. is powerless to gain the release of Abrego Garcia if the Salvadoran government refuses.
A Justice Department lawyer previously conceded the former Maryland resident was deported in error on March 15. The government says he's been incarcerated for a month along with Venezuelan migrants sent to El Salvador under a $6 million prison contract paid by the U.S. government.
"It is a fact now of this record that every day Mr. Garcia is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm," the judge said, referring to the Salvadoran prison facility.
"HE SHOULD GET HIS DUE PROCESS": Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) said he will travel today to El Salvador to try to discuss Abrego Garcia's case with officials there and attempt to visit him in prison, despite not receiving a response from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his Washington visit with Trump on Monday.
"I do intend to go to El Salvador … to show solidarity with his family. … He should get his due process," the senator told CNN, referring to his constituent.
Van Hollen said he believes the administration's stance is "unsustainable" because the government admitted a deportation "mistake" and as a result was later instructed by the Supreme Court to work to reverse its error.
"U.S. federal courts have ordered the safe return of my constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release," Van Hollen said in a statement.
Democrats on Capitol Hill fear that options to press for Abrego Garcia's return for additional U.S. court deliberations are slipping away, reports The Hill's Al Weaver.
The White House has accused Democrats of defending criminal migrants at the expense of innocent U.S. citizens, which for many is a politically precarious perch to maintain for long.
One Senate Democratic aide told The Hill that "realism" is setting in among some Senate Democrats that the chances that Abrego Garcia returns to Maryland have dimmed with each passing day.
In Iowa on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley held a town hall attended by a jeering crowd asking what he planned to do about Abrego Garcia. "Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?" one man shouted. The question was met with enthusiastic claps from many in the crowd of about 100. "I'm not going to," Grassley said. Pressed to explain, he said, "Because that's not a power of Congress." Asked if he was proud of Trump, the 91-year-old Judiciary Committee chair responded, "There's no president I have agreed with 100 percent of the time."
The Hill: Contrary to specifics in the court record, Trump's press secretary said Tuesday that Abrego Garcia is "a foreign terrorist and an MS-13 gang member" who is in prison after deportation for "his gang affiliation and his engagement in human trafficking."
Lawyers for the Maryland sheet metal worker and father of three who is married to a U.S. citizen say their client entered the U.S. after fleeing El Salvador without legal status in 2011 and found work. He was accused in 2019 by a police informant of being a member of MS-13, allegations he denied. He has never been charged with a crime. A judge found in 2019 that he should not be deported to his home country because he had a credible fear of persecution and torture in El Salvador.
A former Maryland police officer who had accused Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 gang member was later suspended for disclosing confidential information about another case, The New Republic reported on Tuesday. Advocates for Abrego Garcia say he has been denied due process, was deported to his home country in defiance of a court order and should be returned to the U.S. to receive due process under U.S. law.
"DEEPLY DISTURBING": The New York Times's "The Daily" podcast spoke with Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak about why the administration's legal position in the Abrego Garcia case goes beyond one deported migrant.
"There's really nothing in the administration's legal logic that would prohibit the administration from picking an American citizen off the street, send them to a viscous prison in another country where torture is routine, concededly lawlessly, and then say, 'Whoops, sorry, nothing we can do about it. You're going to spend the rest of your days there,'" Liptak said. "The logic and implications of the administration's position can only be called deeply disturbing."
▪ The Associated Press: Here is a look at what judges, federal officials and Trump lieutenants have said about Abrego Garcia's case.
▪ Reuters: Trump said during an interview with Fox Noticias on Tuesday that he plans stipends as part of a self-deportation program.
▪ Axios: The president described a new legal path for "great" migrants who lack legal status.
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