The federal judge overseeing the case of a man the U.S. government admitted was deported to El Salvador by mistake put Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys on notice during a Tuesday hearing.
ABC News reported that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis — an appointee of former President Barack Obama to the District of Maryland — announced during the hearing that she was ordering "expedited discovery" in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Under that process, DOJ officials will have to go under oath in sworn depositions and testify under penalty of perjury about the details of Abrego Garcia's wrongful incarceration in a notorious maximum security mega-prison.
"You made your jurisdictional arguments, you made your venue arguments," Xinis told DOJ lawyers. "You made your arguments on the merits. You lost. This is now about the scope of the remedy."
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Xinis made it clear that depositions will begin in two weeks, and that every day Abrego Garcia is in El Salvador's CECOT prison is "a day of further irreparable harm." She also said that she would expand on her previous order instructing President Donald Trump's administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return, noting that the "Supreme Court has spoken" on the matter.
"Until this matter is over and a final order is issued, we will operate within the parameters of that ruling, and it is consistent with the Supreme Court, and it is consistent with the plain meaning of the term," Xinis said. "And it is also consistent with the common practice in immigration law, when an individual is wrongfully removed from the United States."
The Trump administration is countering that it does not have the means to return Abrego Garcia to Maryland, arguing that he is "being held in the sovereign, domestic custody" of El Salvador. This is despite a 2019 court order expressly prohibiting the government from sending him to El Salvador due to the likelihood of persecution.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Abrego Garcia was a "foreign terrorist" and a member of the MS-13 gang, though she provided no evidence. Abrego Garcia's attorneys argued that their request for their client to be returned to his family in Maryland was in line with what current law requires.
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Click here to read ABC's full report.