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Briefing|A Judge Ordered the U.S. to Detail Its Efforts to Return a Deported Man
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/briefing/court-hearing-deportation-bond-markets-tariffs.html
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A federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration today to provide daily updates about its progress toward returning a migrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who administration officials acknowledge was wrongly deported nearly a month ago to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
“We are going to make a record of everything the government is doing and not doing,” the judge, Paula Xinis, said.
Her order temporarily defused a showdown between the judicial and executive branches after a contentious day in court. Earlier, Trump administration lawyers had defied the judge’s order to provide a written explanation of its plans to free Abrego Garcia. The lawyers also repeatedly stonewalled her efforts to get even the most basic information.
When the judge asked what the Trump administration had done so far to “facilitate” the release of Abrego Garcia, a Justice Department lawyer responded, “The defendants are not yet prepared to share that information.”
“That means they’ve done nothing,” the judge said.
The administration’s lawyers said they would comply with last night’s Supreme Court ruling, which instructed them to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia. But the fiery clashes in the courtroom left open the possibility of a standoff in the future.
In related news, an immigration judge ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student activist, could be deported. Legal hurdles remain.
