The hearing is the first about Abrego Garcia’s case since El Salvador’s president told reporters he is not going to „smuggle a terrorist into the United States.“
A Maryland federal judge wants to find out if government officials are acting in „bad faith“ in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison.
Judge Paula Xinis on Tuesday called for a two-week process of „expedited discovery“, including questioning government officials under oath, to learn whether the government is doing enough to try to bring him back.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen, had lived in Maryland for about 15 years before he was deported to El Salvador last month, despite being granted protections by an U.S. immigration judge. He is in custody in Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s mega-prison, known as CECOT. The Supreme Court said the Trump administration should facilitate his return.
„It is a fact now, of this record: every day he is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm“, Xinis said from the bench on Tuesday. „We have to give process to both sides but we are going to move. No tolerance for gamesmanship and grandstanding.“
Lawyers for the Justice Department and those representing Abrego Garcia have one week to conduct depositions of Joseph Mazzara, the acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, as well as of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director Robert Cerna, and of other officials who have filed declarations before the court.
The hearing is the first courtroom appearance about Abrego Garcia’s case since Bukele met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, and told reporters that he is not going to „smuggle a terrorist into the United States.“
The U.S. government has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has since designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
