Frustrated Judge Demands Trump Administration Provide Daily Updates on Status of Immigrant Mistakenly Sent to El Salvador

The judge who ordered the return of a Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador is growing impatient with the Trump administration’s failure to act one day after the Supreme Court upheld her ruling. District Judge Paula Xinis told the deputy assistant attorney general, Drew Ensign, on Friday that she wants daily reports on the status of the administration’s efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to his family.“Just so we’re clear, there is no business hours in this court. All hours are spent on all cases in this court. There’s no 9 to 5,” she said. Judge Xinis added that suggestions that the administration needs time to “meaningfully review” a four-page order issued by the Supreme Court on Thursday night “blinks at reality.”Mr. Ensign responded that the administration will comply but needs to confirm Mr. Garcia’s location and to arrange for his return.This undated photo provided by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, in April 2025, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. CASA via AP“We simply believe that the court’s deadlines are impracticable, but that is not to say that the government is not intending to comply with the Supreme Court’s order,” he said.In its ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the administration to “facilitate” Mr. Garcia’s release from custody and “to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” The court also cautioned Judge Xinis to show “deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”President Trump is scheduled to meet with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, on Monday. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not respond directly to a question Friday about whether the issue will come up during the meeting, but said the Supreme Court made clear the administration’s responsibility was to “facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, not to ‘effectuate’ the return,” as ordered by Judge Xinis.Mr. Garcia has been living in America since 2011, when he illegally entered the country at age 16. He is married and has an American wife and child. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that even though he entered the country illegally he was protected from deportation through a withholding order because he faced the prospect of torture or violence at home.The Trump administration admits that an “administrative error” resulted in Mr. Garcia being packed onto a flight full of deportees headed to a prison in El Salvador on March 15, but insists that he is a member of the MS-13. Judge Xinis rejected that claim, arguing that the allegation was a “vague, unsubstantiated corroboration from a confidential informant.” A local police officer in Maryland reportedly made the accusation in 2019, but law enforcement never acted on it.In court filings Friday, Mr. Garcia’s attorneys called the government’s delay a “stunning display of arrogance and cruelty.” “The government continues to delay, obfuscate, and flout court orders, while a man’s life and safety is at risk,” wrote the attorney from law firm Quinn Emanuel, Jonathan Cooper.

Frustrated Judge Demands Trump Administration Provide Daily Updates on Status of Immigrant Mistakenly Sent to El Salvador

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