President Donald Trump pledged to obey the Supreme Court on returning a Maryland dad who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador—the day after his administration refused to do just that.
“If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that,” Trump said aboard Air Force One Friday, according to The Hill. “I respect the Supreme Court.”
On Thursday, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling requiring the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia after he was deported over an “administrative error” —a mistake the DOJ admitted.
Yet on Friday, the Trump administration refused to provide updates on its progress and called the court’s Friday morning deadline to provide information “impracticable.”
Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is presiding over Garcia’s case, that he was not given information about Garcia’s custodial status or who had authority over him, CBS News reported.
In response, Xinis ripped Ensign and the Trump administration during the hearing for not acting quickly enough—if at all—to bring Garcia back to the United States.
Xinis ordered the Justice Department to provide her with “daily updates” on Friday “from now until compliance.”
“We’re going to make a record of what, if anything, the government is doing or not doing,” Xinis said. “The Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly … And yet, I can’t get an answer today about what you’ve done in the past, which means, again, the record as it stands, is that nothing has been done.”
Local Maryland police had accused Garcia, 29, of being a member of the criminal MS-13 gang, yet gang violence and threats to his family are what led Garcia to flee El Salvador at the age of 16, the Associated Press reported.
Garcia denied any association with the gang, and a U.S. immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador in 2019.
While Trump is fronting support for the courts while defying them, his border czar, Tom Homan, sang a different tune about the administration’s plans.
In a Friday Newsmax interview, Homan doubled down, alleging Garcia is a gang member and insisting his administration acted accordingly.
“The alien is to blame. The alien entered this country illegally, which is a crime. He’s the MS-13 gang member, according to our intelligence and even that of the intelligence of El Salvador. He was given withholding and removal from El Salvador because of fear of gang violence,” said Homan.
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