A federal judge temporarily stopped discovery in a wrong deportation case from Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
US Judge Paula Xinis issued an order Wednesday night to be accelerated in this case for seven days. The move occurred after Trump’s administration, in a closed motion the previous day, asked the judge to break.
The judge’s orders said the break was made with the approval of the government and lawyer representing Abrego Garcia.
On Tuesday, Xinis had ordered the government to answer more complete questions about wrong deportation and to respond on Wednesday night to the request of the discovery of Abrego Garcia’s lawyer.
Last week, Xinis slammed the lawyer of the Department of Justice for their laundry in this case and ordered government officials to testify under oaths through accelerated discoveries.
“Considering that the court firmly warned the defendants and their legal advisers to comply with their closely discovery obligations … their boilerplate, objections that were not valid and reflected in a deliberate rejection to comply with the command of this court and regulations governed,” Xini wrote Tuesday.
Abrego Garcia, a native of Salvador who has lived with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to Cecot Mega-Prison from El Salvador-although the 2019 court orders prohibit deportation to the country for fear of persecution-after the Trump government claimed to be a member of the MS-13 crime gang.
Trump’s administration, when recognizing that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador, said that the alleged affiliation of MS-13 made him not eligible to return to the United States. His wife and lawyer denied that he was a member of the MS-13.
Judge Xinis earlier this month decided that the Trump government had to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, and the Supreme Court of the US in a round voice confirmed the decision, “with regard to the respect that is owed to the executive branch in the implementation of foreign affairs.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a salvador migrant in this handout drawn by Reuters on April 9, 2025.
Abrego Garcia’s family via Reuters
Earlier Tuesday, a government lawyer stressed that providing detailed information based on the law for Abrego Garcia confinement would be “fully inappropriate and diplomatic discussion invasion,” according to a joint letter describing the discovery disputes between the parties.
“After Abrego’s repatriation for El Salvador, his detention was no longer a matter of the United States confinement, but the problem of government belonging to El Salvador – which had been explained to the Plaintiff repeatedly,” the government said.
The lawyer for Abrego Garcia in the letter accused Trump’s administration of responding to their discovery request by producing “no substance” and giving interrogation responses that were “unresponsive.”