A federal judge in Maryland expressed frustration with the Trump administration’s shifting claims about its handling of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s illegal deportation to El Salvador. Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Justice Department to produce a witness from the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday to testify about its designs for Abrego.
Abrego, currently incarcerated in Tennessee, faces federal human smuggling charges. His attorneys claim that his deportation was “concocted” by the administration to persuade the government of El Salvador to return him to the US in June.
Xinis pressed the Justice Department on the timeline of the investigation into Abrego’s alleged human smuggling, which began supposedly on April 28, but a DOJ attorney contradicted, saying it started earlier. The judge questioned how this discrepancy affected her trust in the administration’s claims.
Abrego’s lawyers demand that he be returned to Maryland, where he lived before being improperly deported to El Salvador. The Justice Department argues that his return to the US in June fulfills the court’s requirement for release from El Salvador’s custody.
DOJ attorneys revealed that if Abrego were released next week, they would initiate deportation proceedings against him, contradicting a White House statement last month. They also admitted that Abrego’s deportation in March was an “administrative error,” but contradicted earlier statements by the administration and DOJ officials.
The judge questioned how the administration could claim it had no intention to deport Abrego if its own lawyers testified that they were negotiating with El Salvador to return him, saying “For three months, your clients told the world they weren’t going to do anything to bring him back. The president said it in two interviews.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/07/kilmar-abrego-garcia-deportation-hearing-00441492