Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:32:14 GMT

If I were Judge Xinis, here's how I would start today's hearing about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This is a🧵

To make sure that we're all on the same page. This hearing is about an innocent man who is wrongfully detained in a foreign prison and how to get him out of that prison and back to the United States. He is suffering irreparable harms, and we have no proof that he is even still alive (other than one statement from a government official over the weekend). And it is well known that CECOT is basically akin to a Soviet gulag.

Yes, he is innocent. He has not been convicted of any crime. Nor was he charged with one when he arrested several weeks ago. Our constitution presumes that people are innocent until they are proven guilty in a court of law. You've all seen it in movies and TV shows. They tell the person why they are being arrested, read them their Miranda rights, and take them to a local prison (rather than ping ponging them from prison to prison until they are several states away from where they were arrested).

The government claims that Mr. Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang and points to his immigration hearings from 2019 as proof for their claim. But there was only one, anonymous claim back then. And it was never proven. They also insist that the recent designation of MS-13 as a terrorist organization (https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/) supersedes the 2019 order preventing Mr. Abrego Garcia from being sent back to El Salvador. But that has problems. Firstly, the order did not say that the government is prohibited from sending him back to El Salvador unless the president declares a gang to be a terrorist organization and then claims him to be a member of said gang. It said that he is prohibited from being sent back to El Salvador. Period.

Multiple representatives of the government have admitted that this is an error (albeit minimizing the seriousness of this by calling it merely an "administrative" error). While this court appreciates their candor and honesty, I have yet to see the government take any steps to rectify their error. This court issued an order for Mr. Abrego Garcia to be brought back to the USA by Monday, 02/07/2025. The Supreme Court did not stay that order until 02/07/2025, meaning that the government should have been working towards enacting my order in the period between when it was issued and when SCOUTS stayed it. I have seen zero evidence that they did so. It was understandable for there to be a pause in the efforts to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back while SCOTUS deliberated. But SCOTUS ruled that they must "provide Abrego Garcia with all the process to which he would have been entitled had he not been unlawfully removed to El Salvador," which agrees with this court's ruling from the previous week. SCOTUS also ordered the government to share as much information as it can regarding Mr. Abrego Garcia's location and the efforts to bring him back to the United States.

furthermore, this court issued an order the next day demanding that Mr. Abrego Garcia be returned as soon as possible and that the government file daily updates on the status of this, specifically answering three questions.

What is the location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia? What steps has the government taken to facilitate his return? What steps will the government take to facilitate his return? To date, the government has made three such filings, and only answered the first question once. They have not answered questions two and three even once and claim, contra SCOTUS, that they cannot share any more information with this court due to its being classified.

They also claim that El Salvador has "sole" jurisdiction over Mr. Abrego Garcia and that we are powerless to force El Salvador to do as the court directs. That they are glad to welcome him back if he can, somehow, get of prison and get from El Salvador to the US. But that they have no ability to make that happen and are under no legal obligation to do so.

Mr. Abrego Garcia's situation is akin to when someone rents a unit at a storage facility. Your items are physically stored at the facility, but they are completely and wholly within your control. In fact, you are paying the facility to hold your items and can go get them whenever you want. And you can end the arrangement at any time.

Mr. Abrego Garcia's situation is similar. He is under the jurisdiction of the United States but is physically located in El Salvador. We are paying for him to be there. We can get him whenever we want. And we can end the relationship whenever we want. Contra the government's suggestion that we have zero power here, we have all the power here. If nothing else, we could stop paying at any time.

The plaintiff has filed a motion asking for my orders (and SCOTUS' order) to be enacted... namely that Mr. Abrego Garcia be returned to the US immediately. And that the government share both details of their deliberations regarding Mr. Abrego Garcia and of our contract/agreement with El Salvador to hold people on our behalf. Lastly, they have asked this court to hold a show cause hearing to contemplate contempt charges against the defendants for their refusal to follow this court’s orders.

I find for the plaintiffs here. Today's hearing shall be the defendants' final chance to give a full accounting of their actions and deliberations. If they do not answer questions with sufficient forthrightness and detail, then we shall hold a show cause hearing tomorrow (Wednesday, 04/16/2025) at the same time as this hearing. At that hearing, I expect all defendants to be physically present in the court room. Likewise, all attorneys who have worked on this case and anyone who has authored, signed, or filed a brief in this case shall appear. Each of you shall have their turn to show this court why it should not impose sanctions upon them.

Furthermore, I order the government to actively facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego no later than11:59 PM on Thursday, 04/17/2025, and that he be present in this court at a habeus corpus hearing on Friday, 04/18/2025 at 11 AM. SCOTUS ruled that he is to be afforded all of his constitutional rights as if he had not been illegally removed from the country, and I intend to enforce their order.

Lastly, I repeat my order that I receive daily briefings on Mr. Abrego Garcia's current location and custodial status, the steps the government has taken to bring him back to the United States, and the steps they plan to take to bring him back to the United States. These briefings will continue until such time as Mr. Abrego Garcia has been returned to the United States.

It is so ordered.

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