


The Justice Department said it needs more time to tell a federal judge its plans for returning a man to the U.S. after the government deported him to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Citing a need for a “reasonable period of time to review the Supreme Court’s order,” issued late Thursday that ordered the government to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S., assistant U.S. attorney Drew Ensign griped in Friday’s motion that there was just a “mere 30 minutes into the business day” that would allow them to follow the Supreme Court’s instruction.
That was “inconsistent,” Ensign said, with the high court’s consideration for the “due regard for deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
It would be “impracticable” for the federal government to comply, Ensign wrote.
Instead, Ensign said he wants until April 15 to submit the information and a hearing to follow on April 16. A hearing before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland is still scheduled for 1 p.m.
Xinis ordered the Justice Department on Thursday to inform her where Garcia is physically located by 9:30 Friday morning, what his current custody status is, what steps the government has already taken to return him and what the federal government is doing now.
ICE officials admitted Abrego Garcia was erroneously sent to prison last month. Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was under an immigration court order that barred his removal to El Salvador due to fears of persecution in the country.
Though Robert Cerna, the acting field director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, admitted in court in March that the agency made an “administrative error” when removing Garcia, it did not stop the Trump administration from claiming that because Garcia was already out of the U.S., the courts lacked jurisdiction to return him.
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The Trump administration claims that Abrego Garcia is affiliated with the gang known as MS-13 even though the Salvadoran national has never been charged nor convicted of a crime. His attorneys have vehemently denied those allegations. The 29-year-old married father of three had a permit from the Department of Homeland Security to work legally in the U.S. Before he was snatched up by authorities on March 12, Abrego Garcia was a sheet metal apprentice who was pursuing his journeyman license. He was deported on March 15.
A Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, admitted in court last month that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Reuveni was taken off the case by Attorney General Pam Bondi in short order and put on administrative leave.
An attorney for Abrego Garcia did not immediately return a request for comment.