The Justice Department is back in court on Friday after a Thursday hearing ended with a frustrated judge who wasn't able to get any straight answers out of the witness from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Judge Paula Xinis called a second day of hearings after the DOJ was unable to produce key documents that an ICE official mentioned being briefed about. The case involves Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man accidently deported by the Department of Homeland Security to a brutal prison in El Salvador.
Thomas Giles, an ICE official based in Los Angeles, took the stand Thursday afternoon, where he was questioned about their plans for Ábrego García's future deportation. The problem he faced was that Ábrego García's lawyer got him to admit he actually wouldn't have had anything to do with the deportation, as another office would handle it.
The hearing was cut off after the DOJ was unable to produce the document discussed. But by Friday, the DOJ still didn't have the information.
At issue is ICE's intention to arrest and deport Ábrego once he is released from prison in Tennessee. Ábrego was brought back to the U.S. from the El Salvador prison only to be immediately arrested and charged with the illegal transport of an undocumented immigrant, which is a felony.
WJZ's Mike Hellgren said that Judge Xinis had a "fiery exchange" with the lawyers on Friday.
“Why do we not have the detainer today when I asked for it yesterday? The detainer is a really simple thing,” she said. The document she seeks is an ICE detainer for Ábrego, which details where he could be sent to a third-party country if and when ICE deports him a second time.
The DOJ said that they were "working on it," An answer she didn't like.
“What’s to work on? It’s a piece of paper,” she said. “Can someone get an email to someone so I can see the lawful or unlawful basis for detaining him?”
“I can’t presume anything is regular in this irregular case," she added.
She then accused the government of breaking the law based on witness testimony yesterday, Hellgren wrote on X. The prosecutors emphatically disagreed with that.
“I’m not here to answer your questions in this case. You’re here to answer mine," she clapped back.
After the exchange, Politico legal analyst Kyle Cheney characterized it as "Xinis comes in hot this morning."
"You have taken the presumption of regularity and you’ve destroyed it in my view," she said, according to Cheney's account.
Judge Xinis later complained that the government had “insulted her intelligence” by refusing to provide the requested information and due diligence in this case, Hellgren reported.
