Trump Administration DOJ and ICE

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland has refused the Trump administration’s bid to quickly clear the way to deport MS-13 suspect Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, using a procedural order Tuesday to sharply criticize the Justice Department for trying to "dictate" the court’s schedule and threaten to ignore her existing injunction. Xinis ruled that DOJ’s request to dissolve her order keeping Abrego Garcia in the United States is "not ripe," set a new briefing deadline of April 20 and scheduled a hearing for April 28, underscoring that "respondents cannot dictate the Court’s schedule or the outcome of the motion." Government lawyers told the court they still intend to send Abrego Garcia to Liberia—even though a new agreement would let him be removed to Costa Rica, his preferred destination—with Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons arguing shifting him to Costa Rica would be "prejudicial" after the U.S. invested "significant" resources negotiating removals to Liberia. Xinis openly dismissed a suggestion from another official that Abrego Garcia could simply "remove himself" to Costa Rica as a "fantasy," reflecting her skepticism of the administration’s position and its months-long fight against her injunction, which already forced Trump officials to bring him back to the U.S. after a prior deportation to El Salvador. The dispute, closely watched by immigration lawyers and administration allies frustrated with the judge’s deliberate pace, has become a test of how far the executive branch can go in steering individual deportees to third countries and in pressuring federal judges who stand in the way.