CNN
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The Trump administration will take steps to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia before he goes to trial in Tennessee if he’s released from criminal custody, which could happen as soon as next week, a Justice Department attorney said Monday.
The comments came during a wide-ranging court hearing in Maryland during which US District Judge Paula Xinis tried to pin down what the administration’s plans are for Abrego Garcia, who was recently returned to the US to face charges of human smuggling after being wrongly deported to El Salvador in mid-March.
“You would not wait for the criminal case?” Xinis asked DOJ attorney Jonathan Guynn at one point. The Department of Homeland Security “is removing people from this country very fast … are you going to take the same speed with Mr. Abrego?”
“There’s no intention to just put him in limbo in ICE custody while we wait for the criminal case to unfold,” Guynn replied. “He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process.”
The latest indication from the Justice Department on its plans for Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a political football, come after weeks of top administration officials obstinately saying he would stand trial in the US following his indictment, while his defense attorneys have suspected and in multiple ways tried to stop a quick deportation.
Abrego Garcia is currently in pre-trial detention in Tennessee, but could be released from that court’s authority and turned over to DHS as soon as July 16.
“It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall trying to figure out what’s going to happen next week,” Xinis said at one point on Monday.
Xinis, of the federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, is overseeing a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia and his family after he was deported to El Salvador earlier this year in violation of a 2019 court order that barred his removal to that country. Attorneys for the administration said Monday that if he’s released from criminal custody they will attempt to unwind that 2019 court order or remove him to a third country, though they didn’t say what nation that could be.
The guarded responses from attorneys to the judge’s questions on Monday appeared to underscore an apparent distrust she’s had with the government’s lawyers throughout the months-long case.
Xinis scheduled an evidentiary hearing for Thursday so she can get more concrete answers from a Trump administration official under oath about the government’s plans.
The witness, she said, must be someone “with personal knowledge about defendants’ next steps if Mr. Abrego is released from custody in the criminal case.”
If the individual’s testimony “is substantive and persuasive” and shows that the government will respect Abrego Garcia’s due process rights, Xinis said, she will avoid issuing an order sought by his attorneys that would bar the government from deporting him for now.
This story has been updated with additional details Monday.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
