Judge Xinis grills Trump lawyers over plans to deport Abrego Garcia in high-profile hearing

GREENBELT, MD. – Justice Department officials told a federal judge that they plan to begin removal proceedings to deport Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a third country as early as this month — just one extraordinary admission of many heard by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in a wide-ranging, hours-long hearing on Monday that ended with little in the way of satisfactory answers for all parties.

Xinis ordered the Trump administration to produce a government official to testify under oath Thursday about plans to take Abrego Garcia into ICE custody upon his release from criminal custody in Tennessee and begin deportation proceedings to a third country. 

Lawyers for the Trump administration ultimately conceded Monday that Abrego Garcia could be removed from the U.S. as early as July 16 — just nine days from today. 

The admission capped a remarkable day in court, and a frustrating one, which Xinis described as akin to “trying to nail Jell-O to a wall,” as she attempted to ascertain the government’s next steps. She repeatedly questioned how officials could pursue immediate deportation while simultaneously mounting a federal criminal case against Abrego Garcia. 

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Asked by Xinis whether the government planned to hold Abrego Garcia in ICE custody until his criminal case in Tennessee is over, lawyers for the administration did not mince their words.

“No,” Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn answered simply. 

“There’s no intention to just put him in limbo in ICE custody while we wait for the criminal case to unfold,” Guynn told Xinis. “He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process.”

The fast-paced timeline by which Justice Department officials plan to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country was just one of many issues heard by Xinis, the Maryland judge who has been presiding over his civil case since March, when Trump officials erroneously deported him to El Salvador.

Xinis last week ordered both parties to appear in court for the first time since May, to consider a flurry of dueling motions that the Trump administration and lawyers for Abrego Garcia had submitted after his return to the U.S. last month.

The judge did not immediately rule on each of the motions on Monday. 

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She did, however, flatly reject two of the government’s motions to dismiss the civil case, rejecting the Trump administration’s previous claims that it had no “power to compel” El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. as “meritless.” 

She also pressed Justice Department officials for details as to when it brought opened a federal investigation into Abrego Garcia in a separate district for actions stemming from a 2022 traffic stop, and how the timing of the probe and federal indictment squared with the government’s testimony in her own court. 

At the same time as they were opening the federal investigation in Tennessee, she noted, they were slow-walking and otherwise resisting the court’s order to “facilitate” his return to the U.S.

“At the same time that [the government] was saying it had ‘no power to produce’” Abrego Garcia in the U.S., administration officials “had already secured an indictment against him in the Middle District of Tennessee, right?” Xinis asked Justice Department lawyer Bridget O’Hickey.

“Yes your honor,” O’Hickey replied. 

Xinis ultimately ordered the Trump administration to produce a government witness with personal knowledge of the plans to deport Abrego Garcia to testify in court on Thursday — someone whom she said must be able to testify under oath about the “who, what, when, and where” of the goernment’s plans to deport him, again, from the U.S. upon release from U.S. Marshals.

“Given the series of unlawful actions” here, I feel like it’s well within my authority to order this hearing — perhaps more than one — to hear testimony from at least one witness with firsthand knowledge, who can answer these questions about the immediate next steps” from the government pending Abrego Garca’s release from custody, she said.

This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.