Trump admin won’t be held in contempt over refusal to return wrongly deported alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia â€?as judge warns against ‘gamesmanship’
A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to return an alleged MS-13 gang member wrongly deported to El Salvador last month ruled that she would not hold any government officials in contempt for violating her order �for now �but warned against further “gamesmanship.�/p>
US District Judge Paula Xinis said that the federal government failed to provide evidence detailing their efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States by April 7 after he was shipped off to El Salvador’s hellhole lockup CECOT.Â
“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,â€?she said at a hearing in her Greenbelt, Maryland, courtroom.Â
“To date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing.�/p>
Xinis called Tuesday’s hearing to question Justice Department lawyers over its disregard of court orders â€?including one from the US Supreme Court â€?to return Abrego Garcia, who was deported on March 15, against an order granting him asylum in the US.Â
The White House has disavowed Abrego Garcia as being “wrongly deported�despite admitting he was booted from the country as a result of a “clerical error.�/p>
Abrego Garcia �who had been living in the Old Line State �was sent to his home country last month by the Trump administration, alongside 260 other reputed gang members under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
The feds have claimed Abrego Garcia is part of the vicious Salvadoran gang MS-13 and that he was illegally in the country �despite never being charged with a crime.
But the move to boot him went against a 2019 immigration order blocking his removal to his home country on the grounds he would have been targeted by rival gangs, like Barrio 18.
The judge didn’t, however, bar him from being deported to another country.
The high court also found he was wrongly deported and instructed the feds to “facilitate�his return. The Supreme Court sent the case back down to a lower court.
Government lawyers argued Tuesday that the Trump administration has complied with court orders based on their interpretation of the word “facilitate.�/p>
The feds told Xinis the administration removed all barriers to allow for his return, explaining that Abrego Garcia would be allowed into the country if he showed up at a port of entry or a US embassy.Â
Xinis balked at the government’s defense, pressing that interpretation of the meaning of “facilitateâ€?is contrary to “the plain meaning of the word.”
Ahead of the hearing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused the feds of taking no steps to get their client back �despite the court orders.
His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, also told a crowd of protesters outside the courthouse that her husband was working hard to achieve the American dream for his family when he was taken into custody in front of their 5-year-old child.
She said the dream was shattered on March 12 when he was “abducted and disappearedâ€?by the federal government.Â
“I find myself pleading with the Trump administration and the Bukele administration to stop playing political games with the life of Kilmar,â€?Vasquez Sura.Â
“Today is 34 days after this disappearance �I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive.�/p>
Abrego Garcia’s team has filed a lawsuit to fight for his return.
On Monday, President Trump met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, where his Central American counterpart said any call for him to have his citizen returned would be “preposterous.�/p>
“I hope you are not suggesting that I smuggle terrorists into the United States,�Bukele said. “Of course, I’m not going to do that.�/p>
Xinis described the statements in the Oval Office as “two very misguided ships passing in the night.�/p>
“The Supreme Court has spoken,â€?she added.Â
US Attorney General Pam Bondi also appeared indignant toward the court orders for Abrego Garcia’s return when , “We don’t want Kilmar Abrego Garcia back.�/p>
Xinis set an April 23 deadline for the Trump administration to produce documents and have officials sit for depositions regarding the steps the feds are taking to secure Abrego Garcia’s return.Â
With Post wires
