GREENBELT, MD. – A federal judge will hear from a top Homeland Security official Thursday as she weighs next steps in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant erroneously deported from the U.S. and now central to a legal fight over Trump’s presidential powers.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration on Monday to produce a government witness "with personal knowledge" about the administration’s plans for Abrego Garcia, who she said will be expected to testify, under oath, about the "who, what, where, and when" involving the government's plans to deport him again to either El Salvador or a third country pending release from federal custody.

Justice Department officials notified Judge Xinis hours before the hearing that they plan to call as a witness Thomas Giles, the assistant director for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Los Angeles, California.

Trump administration officials are expected to address on Thursday, "among other topics, the asserted lawful bases for detention, the nature and timing of any notice to be provided to Abrego Garcia, the location of any proposed custody or transfer, and the procedural steps Defendants intend to pursue," Xinis said in her order. 

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The request came after Justice Department officials conceded at a hearing earlier this week that Abrego Garcia could be removed from the U.S. as soon as July 16 — nine days from today, when a federal judge in Tennessee will consider whether he should be freed and transferred to DHS custody.

Abrego Garcia, currently held by U.S. Marshals in Tennessee, was returned from El Salvador in June — three months after his deportation and weeks after the Supreme Court backed Xinis’s order to facilitate his return.

Upon arrival, Abrego was immediately slapped with federal charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. Justice Department officials acknowledged in court this week that they plan to immediately take him into ICE custody as early as this month and deport him to a third country — regardless of the status of his criminal case.

Xinis, who is handling his civil case, grilled Trump administration lawyers for details Monday as to when they opened a federal investigation into Abrego Garcia in the U.S. Middle District of Tennessee — and how the timing of the investigation and federal indictment squared with the government's testimony in her own court. 

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She took umbrage at the dueling timelines of the criminal investigation, noting that, by the government’s own admission, it began investigating Abrego Garcia in the Middle District in Tennessee on April 28, 2025 — the same time officials were telling the court that the administration was powerless to order a foreign government to return Abrego Garcia, in compliance with the court order.

"Now I have real concerns — as if I haven't for the last three months," Xinis noted in response.

Justice Department lawyers also told Xinis that they do not plan to keep him in the U.S. until his trial is over.

"No," Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn answered simply. 

"There’s no intention to just put him in limbo in ICE custody while we wait for the criminal case to unfold," Guynn told Xinis. "He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process."

"Given the series of unlawful actions" here, I feel like it’s well within my authority to order this hearing — perhaps more than one — to hear testimony from at least one witness with firsthand knowledge, who can answer these questions about the immediate next steps" from the government pending Abrego Garca's release from custody, Xinis said.