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Administration officials have either violated orders or used an array of obfuscations and delays to prevent federal judges from deciding whether violations took place.
June 3, 2025Updated 11:38 a.m. ET
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.”
