Latest news with #PaulaXinis
CBS News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Abrego Garcia's lawyers ask Maryland judge to fine Trump administration for contempt
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a federal judge in Maryland to impose fines against the Trump administration for contempt, arguing that it flagrantly ignored court orders for several weeks to return him to the U.S. from El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's attorneys said the administration claimed to be powerless to retrieve him, even while it secretly built a human smuggling case against him. The U.S. brought Abrego Garcia to a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, last week to face those charges. "The Government's defiance has not been subtle," the attorneys said in a filing late Wednesday. "It has been vocal and sustained and flagrant." Request to force the release of federal documents The attorneys are also asking U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis to compel the release of documents the federal government withheld by claiming they contain protected state secrets. Or as an alternative, the lawyers suggested a special master to investigate the government's "willful noncompliance" of court orders. "What the Government improperly seeks to hide must be exposed for all to see," Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote. Their request came a day after the Trump administration said it will ask Xinis to dismiss the case, with U.S. attorneys describing recent accusations by Abrego Garcia's attorneys as baseless, desperate and disappointing. "But the proof is in the pudding — Defendants have returned Abrego Garcia to the United States just as they were ordered to do," they wrote. Contempt was possible, legal experts said Legal experts said last month that the Abrego Garcia case may be headed for contempt. And the request by his attorneys adds to the ongoing friction between the White House and the courts during President Donald Trump's second term. Courts can hold parties to civil litigation or criminal cases in contempt for disobeying their orders. The penalty can take the form of fines or other civil punishments, or even prosecution and jail time, if pursued criminally. But contempt processes are slow and deliberative, and, when the government's involved, there's usually a resolution before penalties kick in. How the Abrego Garcia case got to this point The U.S. mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia to an El Salvador prison in March. The expulsion violated a U.S. immigration judge's order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he likely faced gang persecution there. Abrego Garcia's American wife sued, prompting Xinis to order his return on April 4. The Supreme Court ruled April 10 that the administration must work to bring him back. Arguments ensued over the next several weeks about whether the Trump administration was following those orders or not. Trump also said publicly that he could return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. with a call to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Xinis ordered U.S. attorneys to submit documents and testimony to show what the government had done to follow her orders. The Trump administration claimed that much of that information is protected under the state secrets privilege. The judge has not ruled on that matter.
New York Times
12-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Lawyers for Returned Deportee Seek Sanctions Against Trump Officials
For the better part of two months, lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, have been complaining loudly about the Trump administration's persistent efforts to dodge court orders instructing it to work toward freeing him from Salvadoran custody. Their search for accountability continued even after the White House brought Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States last week — albeit to face an indictment that was investigated and filed while he was overseas. But late on Wednesday night, the lawyers sent the federal judge handling the case their most detailed inventory yet of what they described as the administration's 'sustained and flagrant' violations. The lawyers also asked the judge, Paula Xinis, to do something about it. They said that they wanted her to appoint a special master to investigate the failure by Trump officials to comply with her instructions and to impose financial penalties, if warranted, as a punishment for contempt. The 33-page filing by the lawyers contained a litany of purported wrongdoing by the Trump administration and accused officials in the Homeland Security and Justice Departments of throwing up evasions at every turn, harboring a disdain for the judicial process and, in one instance, potentially lying under oath. It gave a strong flavor of the lawyers' frustration after almost two months of failing to get answers to the question of what the White House had been doing to secure Mr. Abrego Garcia's release before it suddenly changed course last Friday by bringing him back to face indictment. 'Nearly 60 days, 10 orders, three depositions, three discovery disputes, three motions for stay, two hearings, a weeklong stay and a failed appeal later,' the lawyers wrote, 'the plaintiffs still have seen no evidence to suggest that the defendants took any steps, much less 'all available steps,' to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States 'as soon as possible' so that his case could be handled as it would have been had he not been unlawfully deported.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fox News
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
'Proof is in the pudding': Trump DOJ tells court it will seek dismissal of Abrego Garcia case
The Trump administration on Tuesday said it plans to seek the dismissal of a civil case ordering them to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the U.S., arguing in a new court filing that the case is now "moot," given that he is now back in U.S. custody. In the filing, lawyers for the Trump administration told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that they plan to submit an official motion to dismiss the case on "mootness grounds" by June 16. Justice Department officials said they have "done exactly what plaintiffs asked for and what this court ordered them to do" – that is, to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. from El Salvador, where he was deported under the Alien Enemies Act in March in what Trump officials acknowledged was an administrative error. But the filing is likely to do little to quell the mounting legal fight surrounding Abrego Garcia's detention and efforts to secure his return from Salvadorian custody. Upon being returned to the U.S., Abrego Garcia was immediately sent to Tennessee to face federal charges related to transporting undocumented immigrants in the U.S., stemming from an arrest years earlier. Court documents show the Justice Department filed the charges against Abrego Garcia on May 21 – prompting a flurry of fresh questions as to when the investigation and impaneling of a grand jury would have taken place. Lawyers for Abrego Garcia described the timing of his return from Salvadorian custody as "pure farce," and told Xinis in a filing of their own late last week that they plan to file a sanctions motion against the government by Wednesday. They noted that lawyers for the Trump administration were continuing to tell the court, even six days after he was indicted, that they did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. They also noted that, in their view, a contempt charge and sanctions against the government were warranted – reminding Xinis that the Maryland court still has jurisdiction over the civil case. Xinis, for her part, suggested last month that the Trump administration could be held in contempt for their refusal to comply with the court – describing their lack of candor in the discovery proceedings as beating a "frustrated and dead horse." Trump administration lawyers sought to dispel the notion that they intentionally flouted the court on Tuesday, describing plaintiffs' characterization of their actions as "desperate and disappointing." "To be sure, the parties have had pointed disagreements on discovery issues, including because defendants could not share state secrets and other protected materials that would have demonstrated their good-faith compliance with the court's orders," the administration said Tuesday. "But the proof is in the pudding – defendants have returned Abrego Garcia to the United States just as they were ordered to do." Xinis, an Obama appointee, previously criticized the administration for failing to comply with her court's requests for information in the case, and accused officials in a blistering eight-page order of submitting "vague, evasive and incomplete" responses that she said demonstrated "willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations."
CBS News
04-06-2025
- General
- CBS News
Judge orders tranche of documents in Kilmar Abrego Garcia case to be made public
Washington — The federal judge overseeing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia ordered a batch of documents to be unsealed Wednesday in response to a request from a media coalition that includes CBS News. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said seven records must be be made available on the public docket for Abrego Garcia's case, though one of the documents contains redactions. She also said the transcript from an April 30 hearing will be partially unsealed and include redactions that aim to protect potentially classified information or other sensitive material. Xinis' order was in response to a request to unseal court records made by more than a dozen news organizations, including CBS News. The judge found that the media outlets "rightly contend that, at common law, the public enjoys a presumptive right to access court records, overcome only when outweighed by competing interests." The Justice Department opposed the request to make the records public on two grounds: the filings in question are discovery materials that are typically not available to the press and the public; and keeping the documents sealed is needed to protect national security and prevent sensitive information from being disseminated. As to those arguments, Xinis said "neither withstand scrutiny." One batch of three documents had been available to the public but were then sealed following an April hearing. Another record is a three-page Justice Department request to pause for one week the court's order to turn over certain information about efforts to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from Salvadoran custody. The document that contains redactions is from Abrego Garcia's lawyers and urged the judge to maintain the original deadlines for information to be produced. The final records made public are a brief, one-sentence notice and additional request from the Justice Department for Xinis to pause proceedings to avoid interfering with efforts to "resolve this litigation." Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran migrant who had been living in Maryland since he arrived in the U.S. illegally in 2011. He was arrested in March and deported to El Salvador, where he was initially held in the notorious maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, with a group of more than 230 men, mostly Venezuelans, accused of being gang members. The State Department said in April that Abrego Garica had been moved to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana. But the Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia's deportation to El Salvador was a mistake, as he had been granted a legal status in 2019 known as withholding of removal that forbade the Department of Homeland Security from removing him to his home country of El Salvador because he was likely to face persecution by local gangs. The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia is a member of the gang MS-13, citing an allegation from a confidential informant and the clothes he was wearing when he was arrested in 2019, after which he was released from custody. His lawyers have denied Abrego Garcia has any ties to MS-13, and said he has never been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. or El Salvador. The Trump administration is seeking to dismiss Abrego Garcia's case.
Fox News
28-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
US judge blasts Trump lawyers for 11th-hour tactics in MS-13 deportation case
A federal judge in Maryland scolded Trump administration lawyers on Tuesday for waiting until the eleventh hour to seek an extension in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member deported to El Salvador in what officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis denied the Justice Department's 30-day extension request, noting that Trump administration lawyers waited until "the very day" their response was due to file. She also said they "expended no effort in demonstrating good cause" to comply with her earlier orders. "They vaguely complain, in two sentences, to expending 'significant resources' engaging in expedited discovery," Xinis said of the government's efforts. "But these are burdens of their own making." She also noted the number of times the administration has delayed submitting information in the case despite the fact the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration this year to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. "The court has conducted no fewer than five hearings in this case and at no point had defendants even intimated they needed more time to answer or otherwise respond," Xinis said, adding that the defendants are "intimately familiar with the causes of action and of the pending deadline." "Thus, to say now that additional time is needed to do that which the law requires rings hollow," Xinis said in denying the motion. Hours later, the Trump administration filed with the court a motion to dismiss the case, citing what it described as a "lack of jurisdiction." Xinis has not yet responded to the motion to dismiss. That filing comes amid a monthlong court fight over the status of Abrego Garcia, who remains in El Salvador. Xinis in April ordered the Trump administration to comply with an expedited discovery schedule to determine whether they were complying with the directive to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. Since then, lawyers for the government and Abrego Garcia's attorneys have sparred with Xinis in court over what exactly it means to "facilitate" his return. Xinis most recently described the process as beating a "frustrated and dead horse." She previously took aim at what she deemed to be the lack of information they submitted to the court as part of an expedited discovery process she ordered last month, describing the government submissions as "vague, evasive and incomplete" responses, and which she said demonstrated "willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations." She also chastised their efforts to invoke the state secrets privilege, noting at a status hearing this month that the administration tried to invoke the privilege via a footnote that referenced a filing in a different case before a different federal judge. She said that would not pass muster in her court. The order comes as Trump officials have repeatedly alleged that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, though any formal ties have not been proven. Xinis has indicated growing impatience with the Trump administration's apparent failure to comply with her orders and submit the requested information. This month, she sparred multiple times with DOJ lawyers over their assertions that Abrego Garcia was lawfully detained and deported. "I can't count the number of 'I don't knows' my wonderful clerks and I have heard," she said of depositions from Trump administration officials. The order is the latest development in the ongoing feud between Trump officials and the courts over the use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law used earlier this year to quickly deport migrants from the U.S. To date, the Trump administration has not knowingly complied with any court orders to return migrants who were removed and sent to El Salvador in the early wave of deportation flights, despite earlier court orders from Xinis, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and others. It is unclear whether Xinis plans to begin contempt proceedings against the administration, though the federal judge in D.C. said earlier this year that he had found probable cause to do so.
