When the Trump administration deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, there is no way officials ever could have envisioned the headache that was about to unfold.
Garcia was first apprehended in March, and then he was sent to El Salvador with more than 200 other detainees.
It was soon revealed that there was a protective order in place preventing Garcia's deportation to El Salvador specifically, which is when the legal mess started for the administration.
Initially, ICE officials stated that Garcia's deportation was an “administrative error,” but that take did not last long, as there were numerous other stories emerging at the same time.
Then the administration claimed that Garcia was a member of a human trafficking ring, a possible gang member, and also possibly working for the cartels.
Garcia was returned to the United States in June, facing an indictment in Tennessee based on bodycam footage from a traffic stop in which it was alleged that he was trafficking illegal immigrants.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Garcia, claimed, "The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they're bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you're punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi has been battling with the media about Garcia, especially the repeated references to him as a “Maryland man” during the early stages of the controversy.
On that topic, she stated to Fox News' Jesse Watters, “Jesse, you know, when you’re listening to all these liberal reporters, they keep calling him a Maryland man. He’s not a Maryland man. He’s part of foreign terrorist organization. He’s a member of MS-13, who, as you laid out in your monologue, came to this country and committed just gang acts.”
She was ecstatic when a grand jury came back with an indictment in Tennessee, stating, “Over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children, and women."
When the indictment came down, I stated that it was good news for the administration, as it is not always easy to get such charges. That aside, the government still needed to win this case, or Democrats would surely pounce on this and use it as campaign fodder during the 2026 cycle.
That brings us to yet another proceeding in which the government sought to have Garcia deported, to which the administration came unprepared, and the Maryland judge assigned to the case, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, went ballistic on government attorneys.
In making an argument for a continuance based on the government shutdown, Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate stated, “Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys and employees of the federal Defendants are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances.”
Xinis hammered the government’s lawyers on the fact that the shutdown had only been going for a few days, and they seemed ill-prepared for the case, stating, “That’s not a tenable position. You’ve either done it or you haven’t. It’s not a hard question, guys.” They again pointed to the shutdown as the reason they could not answer her questions, and Xinis lost her patience, stating, “I am asking you really basic questions. What’s been done … have you had any conversations?”
She told the government that it now has until Wednesday to provide her with a proper update on potential witnesses in the case against Garcia, and they are due back in court on Friday, but federal lawyers are really swimming upstream right now. Coming into the courtroom like this is unforgivable, especially with how much is at stake for the administration in this case. Bondi really needs to get her act together, or this is going to blow up in everyone’s face.
