Judge orders discovery in Abrego Garcia case but doesn't rule out contempt charges

Dan Belson, Baltimore Sun on Apr 15, 2025

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GREENBELT, Md. — A judge said she’d order U.S. officials to be deposed on what the Trump administration has done, if anything, to facilitate the return of a mistakenly deported Maryland man after the president of El Salvador refused to return him.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order Tuesday for “targeted discovery” is a prelude to potential contempt proceedings against the administration if officials are found not to be complying with the judge’s order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — and doing so in bad faith.

Xinis said she would order specifically for Trump administration officials to be deposed within the next two weeks, asking them to “show (their) work” on how they have complied with her order.

“If I make a finding of contempt, then it will be based on the record before me,” she said.

The hearing came a day after the heads of both the U.S. and El Salvador were asked by a reporter about Abrego Garcia at the White House, with both leaders indicating they were not interest in releasing Abrego Garcia from a mega-prison in El Salvador.

Xinis said she would order depositions from Department of Homeland Security officials filing daily status updates in the case.

She said that discovery would be focused on two items laid out by the Supreme Court: what the government has done to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release, and what it has done to ensure that his case is “handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

The Trump administration has argued that it has done so already by removing domestic barriers to Abrego Garcia’s entry. The Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel said in a Tuesday status report that the agency would “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s presence in the U.S. if he appeared at a port of entry — but would take him into custody and deport him again after revoking a 2019 legal protective order to prevent his removal.

Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported last month in what U.S. officials have called an “administrative error.” The Prince George’s County resident has been held at a sprawling prison complex in El Salvador where the administration has transferred hundreds of people facing deportation from the U.S. President Donald Trump also insisted Monday that he wants to imprison U.S. citizens at the mega-prison.

Last week, the Supreme Court voted 9-0 to uphold Xinis’ order for the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

During their Monday meeting in the White House, advisers to Trump described the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “win” for the administration and insisted they would not have to ultimately return Abrego Garcia. The administration has cast Abrego Garcia, who has not been convicted of a crime, as a member of the Salvadoran street gang MS-13.

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