July 8 (UPI) — A lawyer for the Justice Department told a federal court in Mayland that it would deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia again — but not to El Salvador — before he get his day in court Tennessee if he is released from pre-trial custody which could happen next week.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrapped up a three-hour hearing Monday by ordering the Justice Department to provide concrete details on what was planned and how the deportation of Abrego Garcia, who is facing people smuggling charges, which he denies, would be carried out.
She told the Trump administration it must produce an official to set out in detail the plans in court in Greenbelt at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
Provided that testimony was credible in showing the government would respect Abrego Garcia’s right to due process, Xinis said she would hold off on issuing an application by his lawyers for an order blocking his deportation.
Xinis complained about the lack of a clear plan and the Justice Department lawyers’ vague answers to questions about how Garcia’s deportation would proceed.
Abrego Garcia is currently in pretrial detention in Nashville but could be released into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security as early as July 16.
“It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall to figure out what’s going to happen next week,” she said.
“Given the history in this case of an unlawful action, a series of unlawful actions, I do believe it’s well with my authority to at least get the information.”
Describing the Department of Homeland Security’s recent record on removing people from the United States as “very fast,” Xinis asked if the administration planned to dispatch Abrego Garcia with similar haste.
Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn said the Home Security Department “would explore its options for removal closer to the time when it would be taking him into custody,” but confirmed the Department of Justice did not intend to place him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention pending the outcome of his criminal case.
“He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process,” said Guynn.
Garcia was returned to the United States from El Salvador at the beginning of June, a little less than three months after being wrongly deported in violation of a 2019 court order that said he could not be deported there.
Motions by government lawyers to have a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia against the administration thrown out on the grounds that the government had complied with Xinis’ order to return him to the United States were denied by Xinis.
However, Abrego Garcia was brought back on an arrest request from the Justice Department after a grand jury indicted him in May on alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling charges.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time that if Abrego Garcia was convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador at the end of his sentence.
Administration counsel confirmed Monday that if he is freed from custody, they will seek to reverse the 2019 ruling or, failing that, deport him to another country without identifying a potential candidate nation that might accept him.
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