By Darren Lyn
HOUSTON, United States (AA) - A federal judge scolded the Trump administration on Friday for not complying with the Supreme Court's order to give details on returning a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, according to media reports.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to his native country March 15 along with hundreds of alleged Salvadoran and Venezuelan gang members, even though a previous court order in a separate case barred him from being expelled from the US. He currently sits in an El Salvadoran prison awaiting return.
Justice Department (DOJ) lawyers did not give US District Court Judge Paula Xinis the information about Abrego Garcia required by Friday's deadline set by the nation's highest court. Instead, they brought a request to delay the process, even after Xinis gave them extra time to comply.
"Defendants are unable to provide the information requested by the court on the impracticable deadline set by the court hours after the Supreme Court issued its order," DOJ lawyers wrote in their filing.
"In light of the insufficient amount of time afforded to review the Supreme Court order, defendants are not in a position where they can share any information requested by the court. That is reality," they said
Xinis rebuffed that explanation.
"We're not going to slow-walk this," Xinis told the lawyers.
"First, the Defendants’ act of sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was wholly illegal from the moment it happened, and Defendants have been on notice of the same," she said in her order.
Xinis added that the government's suggestion that it needed "time to meaningfully review a four-page Order that reaffirms this basic principle blinks at reality."
"I'm not asking for state secrets," said Xinis. "We are going to make a record of everything the government is doing and not doing."
The Trump administration admitted it made an "administrative error" in mistakenly deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador but has continued to argue that the courts have no authority to return him since he is now in the custody of another country.
The Justice Department's defiance of Xinis's order, as well as its refusal to comply with the Supreme Court, threatens to set up a showdown between the executive branch of the Trump administration and the judicial branches of government. This is despite the Supreme Court's ruling directing the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return without intruding into executive branch power overseeing foreign affairs.
In the filing Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorney Jonathan Cooper called the government’s request to continue dragging out his return 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,” said Cooper.