General Discussion

GREENBELT, Maryland — An exasperated federal judge commanded the Trump administration Friday to begin providing “daily updates” on whether it is doing anything to comply with her order to return a Maryland man — illegally deported to El Salvador last month — back to the United States.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis scolded the administration for refusing to provide even “basic” details about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s location, despite her demand for an update by Friday morning.....

The administration’s stonewalling, which Xinis described as “extremely troubling,” raised the specter that it is defying the order that the judge issued last week and that the Supreme Court largely upheld Thursday.

Xinis, an Obama appointee, said that without any information — or even an acknowledgment that the administration had done anything at all — she could only conclude that the administration had “done nothing to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.”

“There’s an easy way to combat that,” she said, “and that’s just to tell me whether you’ve done anything and if so, what.”

Xinis’ new directive requires the daily updates to come from an administration official with “personal knowledge” of efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. But Justice Department officials said they may not be prepared to comply with her demands until at least Monday......

Xinis told Ensign that if Trump administration officials were depriving him of information she demanded, then “you don’t have full and effective contact with your clients.”