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The Trump administration is invoking the “state secrets privilege ” in an apparent attempt to avoid answering a judge’s questions about its erroneous deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to El Salvador.
US district judge Paula Xinis disclosed the government’s position in a two-page order on Wednesday. She set a Monday deadline for attorneys to file briefs on the issue and how it could affect Ábrego García’s case. Xinis also scheduled a 16 May hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, to address the matter.
The Republican administration previously invoked the same legal authority to cut off a judge’s inquiry into whether it defied an order to turn around planes deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
Ábrego García, 29, has been imprisoned in his native El Salvador for nearly two months. His mistaken deportation has become a flash point for Donald Trump’s immigration policies and his increasing friction with the US courts.
Trump has said he could call El Salvador’s president and have Ábrego García, who was living in Maryland, returned to the United States. Instead, Trump has doubled down on his claims that Ábrego García is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Police in Maryland had identified Ábrego García as an MS-13 gang member in 2019 based off his tattoos, Chicago Bulls hoodie and the word of a criminal informant. But Ábrego García was never charged. His lawyers say the informant claimed Ábrego García was in an MS-13 chapter in New York, where Ábrego García has never lived.
The administration has balked at telling Xinis what, if anything, it has done to facilitate Ábrego García’s return to the US. The judge ruled that his lawyers can question several Trump administration officials under oath about the government’s response to her orders.
In a court filing on Wednesday, his lawyers said they already have conducted depositions of three officials and are “still in the dark” about the government’s efforts to free Ábrego García. They are asking for permission to depose more officials, possibly including one from the White House.
