The Department of Justice’s response to a request by the attorneys representing El Salvadoran national Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia for a “show cause” holding the government in contempt didn’t go exactly according to the script the plaintiffs had in mind. It served notice on Obama-appointed federal judge Paula Xinis that she was mistaken if she thought the Department of Justice or the White House were shaking in their boots. It is the philosophical follow-up to the last response the DOJ sent to the judge; see Trump Admin Respectfully Tells Judge Xinis to Pound Sand in Abrego Garcia Case – RedState.
This case started when Abrego Garcia was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in suburban Maryland and given a free plane trip to an anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. What would have been an unremarkable deportation of an illegal immigrant with alleged gang ties and an active removal order became more complicated when it was discovered that the removal order said he couldn’t be removed to El Salvador because the bad blood between his gang, MS-13, and another gang might make him a target. Since then, the administration has been locked in a battle of will with a federal judge who seems hellbent on bringing an illegal immigrant back to the US so she can demonstrate her power.
The government summarizes the demands made by the plaintiffs this way: “In response, Plaintiffs moved for three categories of relief: (1) an order superintending and micromanaging Defendants’ foreign relations with the independent, sovereign nation of El Salvador, (2) an order allowing expedited discovery and converting Tuesday’s hearing into an evidentiary hearing, and (3) an order to show cause for why Defendants should not be held in contempt.
Hellbound and Down 