A federal judge on Wednesday gave the Department of Justice another week to provide information about their efforts to return to illegal deported and suspended migrants MS-13
The United States District Judge, Paula Xinis, granted the Department of Justice a seven -day stay until April 30 to provide testimony and documents related to a case that has attracted a sharp wedge between Democrats and Republicans.
Drew Ensign, an Deputy Attorney General, presented a sealed motion requesting the stay, with lawyers from Abrego García presenting an response in opposition to the government’s motion to stop the order. It was under seal in the federal court of Maryland.
Xinis did not explain his legal reasoning, but wrote that he became “with the agreement of the parties.”
The photo of the White House shows without surroundings where the holidays on immigration are in the middle of the deportation of Abrego García
Kilmar Abrego García at the Megaprison El Salvadoran “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT).
The administration also sought relief of having to present daily updates, but Xinis’s stay made no change in that requirement.
The order on Wednesday night occurred only one day after Xinis criticized the administration’s lawyers in a written presentation to ignore their orders by refusing to provide daily updates of state in the case, saying that they had been acting with “bad faith” when obstructing the legal process.
“That ends now,” said Xinis, who was nominated for the bank by the former president Barack Obama.
“During the week, the defendants have sought refuge behind the statements of vague and without foundation privileges, using them as a shield to obstruct the discovery and evade compliance with the orders of this court,” Xinis wrote in the order of the Anight page. “The defendants have known, at least since last week, that this court requires specific and objective exhibitions to support any privilege claim. However, they have continued depending on the statements of the boiler.”
Jennifer, Kilmar Abrego García’s wife, cries when Maryland’s senator Chris Van Hollen speaks during a press conference on April 18, 2025 at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. (Pete Kiehart for Washington Post through Getty Images)
She gave the administration until 6 pm on Wednesday to provide daily state updates.
The United States has affirmed that much of the information is protected because it involves state secrets, government deliberations and privilege of law clients. But Xinis has rejected the argument and demanded that the Trump administration provide specific justification for each claim for privileged information.
Abrego García, 29, was deported last month by the Trump administration, who says he is a member of the MS-13 gang who also violently defeated his wife. President Donald Trump has declared MS-13 a terrorist organization and is looking to deport all members of the violent gang.
This still from the video of July 22, 2015 shows that Paula Xinis testifies to the Judicial Committee of the Senate. (Judicial Committee of the United States Senate)
Trump showed a photo by Abrego García last week, showing what the president said they were gang tattoos. Abrego García was also arrested by December. 1, 2022, by a Soldier of the Tennessee road patrol and was suspended from participating in human smuggling, since he had eight people in the SUV without luggage. Abrego García has never been accused of a crime.
Abrego García, whose lawyers deny that he is a member of the gang, was deported to the Megaprison El Salvadoran “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) last month, and the authorities recognized in court that their deportation was an administrative error. However, now some senior Trump officials say it was properly eliminated and claim that he is a member of the notorious gang MS -13.
He had been living in Maryland with his wife and children.
President Donald Trump in the Oval office has a photo of the tattoos in the knuckles of Abrego García that the White House says they are affiliated with the MS-13 terrorist group. (Donald Trump Truth Social)
He Department of Justice Documents revealed last week detailed the accusations of domestic violence that Abrego García’s wife, Jennifer Vásquez, did where he accused him of hitting her.
Deported ‘Maryland Man’ defended by others was pushed on the driving car belonging to the human smuggler
Both a Federal District Court and the United States Supreme Court have ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” their release and return to the US for appropriate deportation procedures.
Abrego García illegally entered the United States in 2011 and received a deportation order in 2019. Two previous judges found that he was probably affiliated with MS-13.
An immigration judge in 2019 found that Garcia had not sufficiently refuted evidence of affiliation of MS-13 and, therefore, was removable to any other place other than the Savior because or the threat of a rival gang. This is called a retention order.
The Supreme Court acknowledges that Abrego García was subject to a 2019 retention order that prohibits his removal from El Salvador and that the removal to El Salvador was “therefore illegal.” The court emphasized that the government must facilitate its release from custody in El Salvador and treat its case as if it never deported.
Kilmar Abrego García gathers with Senator van Running. (X / @chrisvanhollen)
The White House Cabinet Deputy Director Stephen Miller said when Trump told the violent gang as a terrorist organization, Abrego García was no longer eligible for any form of immigration relief in the United States.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Abrego García would not be allowed to return to the United States unless El Salvador decided otherwise. “He will not return to our country.”
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The case has reached national headlines and has taken a wedge between Democrats and Republicans.
Last week, Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-MD. Robert García or California, Maxwell Frost or Florida, Yassamin Ansari or Arizona, and Maxine Dexter or Oregon.
Greg Wehner of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.