Inset: President-elect Donald Trump on “Meet the Press,” Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube). Background: Immigration records for Kilmar Abrego Garcia (WTTG/YouTube).
The updates that the Trump administration has been providing to representatives of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland dad who was mistakenly deported and sent to El Salvador, contain “nothing of substance” as the administration also “refuses to respond to interrogatories” that it claims are “based on the false premise that the United States can or has been ordered to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release,” according to the deported man’s lawyers — completely contradicting what the U.S. Supreme Court actually said.
In a joint request filed Monday night requesting a conference before U.S. District Judge Paule Xinis, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers and attorneys from the Justice Department each presented their latest positions on the contentious issue, which has resulted in multiple lawsuits over President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA), a wartime authority previously invoked only three times, the last of which was during World War II.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers want the judge to officially address the government’s alleged “failure to comply” with orders.
“On the eve of the first Court-ordered deposition concerning the Government’s failure to comply with this Court’s orders, the Government responded to Plaintiffs’ discovery requests by producing nothing of substance,” they alleged. “Its document production consists entirely of public filings from the dockets, copies of Plaintiffs’ own discovery requests and correspondence, and two nonsubstantive cover emails transmitting declarations filed in this case. Its interrogatory responses are similarly non-responsive.”
