INTERNACIONAL
Judge on warpath presses Trump DOJ on Abrego Garcia deportation, answers leave courtroom in stunned silence
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis excoriated Trump administration lawyers Friday in a remarkable status hearing centered on Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error.
The heated back-and-forth was full of eye-popping exchanges between the judge and the Justice Department, as she took umbrage with their attempts to invoke the state secrets privilege to shield details concerning Abrego Garcia from the court.
«What world are we living in,» Xinis asked in disbelief after more than two hours of proceedings. «What sort of legal world are we living in?»
She sparred multiple times with DOJ lawyers over their assertion that Abrego Garcia was lawfully detained and deported.
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Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., to protest the continued detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported to El Salvador in March, in what Trump administration officials have acknowledged was an «administrative» error. (Fox News Digital – Breanne Deppisch)
«He was lawfully detained? No he wasn’t!» Judge Xinis objected. «There was no order of removal, there was no warrant for removal – there was nothing.»
She cut off Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn again when he attempted to continue with a different argument. «You didn’t even respond to what I just said,» she told him. «A DHS attorney came in at the first hearing and confirmed that there was no lawful basis to arrest Abrego Garcia.»
«Why are we skipping over that – as part of the misconduct at issue, in light of the pattern I’m currently faced with on this day?» she asked, in disbelief.
For at least 30 seconds, the courtroom fell completely silent.
The judge said she would issue an order later Friday outlining next steps, after the two sides huddled for a closed portion of the case.
Xinis, who, despite her mounting frustrations, seemed likely to grant the government another deadline extension, described the hours-long hearing as beating a «frustrated and dead horse.»
At one point, she rebuked the Justice Department for trying to invoke the state secrets privilege via a footnote referencing a filing in a separate case before a different court, noting that this would not pass muster in her courtroom.
Most of the public hearing was marked by similar sharp exchanges over whether the Trump administration had taken any steps to comply with court orders to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return – a point Xinis reiterated was already settled by both her court and the Supreme Court last month.
At another contentious moment, she laughed in apparent disbelief at the lack of evidence and disclosures from the government. «I can’t count the number of ‘I don’t knows’ my wonderful clerks and I have heard,» she said of depositions from Trump administration officials.
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The government has so far declined to facilitate his return to the U.S., despite court orders and a Supreme Court ruling. (Fox News Digital – Breanne Deppisch )
Xinis told the government lawyers they had not presented her with a sufficient affidavit to invoke the state secrets privilege – which the Trump administration has asserted is necessary in this case to protect sensitive diplomatic and foreign policy matters from being made public in court.
Pointing to a prior admission from the Trump administration, Xinis also said Abrego Garcia was removed from the U.S. «without lawful authority.»
«You’ve conceded it. There’s witness testimony,» she said. Any attempt to revise this «would be exceptionally difficult.»
«Respectfully, your honor, he was removed lawfully,» Guynn replied.
«No,» an incredulous Xinis shot back. «He was removed unlawfully.»
«His removal from the U.S. was lawful,» the Justice Department attorney insisted.
«Well no – no it wasn’t,» Xinis said, visibly stunned.
TRUMP’S REMARKS COULD COME BACK TO BITE HIM IN ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION BATTLE
The judge in the case ordered both sides to court Friday, May 16, 2025 to hear from Trump officials seeking to invoke state secrets privileges. (Fox News Digital – Breanne Deppisch)
«Because there’s actually the [Immigration and Naturalization Act], which says that if the United States elects to remove someone to a third country, there’s a process. Congress has set out that process, the executive has to follow that process.,» she said. «So it is not determined yet whether removal to a third country would be appropriate, which is why the Supreme Court ruled the way it did.»
Ultimately, she said, the government will likely have extra time to file additional declarations to allow it to seek the state secrets privilege.
Still, she said she «has to point out» that the unlawful removal of Abrego Garcia from the U.S. «is a foregone conclusion.»
«He was removed in error. He was sent to El Salvador when there was a notice of withholding of removal, and so that was not lawful.»
Plaintiffs noted that the government had labeled 1,140 documents related to Abrego Garcia’s case as privileged – but in contrast, they were sent just 164 documents – 132 of which were photocopies of their own court filings and interrogatories sent back to them.
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«Your Honor, a life is in the balance,» Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said, urging the court to move faster.
Xinis previously criticized the administration for failing to comply with her court’s requests for information in the case – accusing officials in a blistering eight-page order of submitting «vague, evasive and incomplete» responses that she said demonstrated «willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.»
Federal Courts,Politics,Donald Trump,Supreme Court,Justice Department,Illegal Immigrants,Immigration
INTERNACIONAL
WATCH: Lawmakers break down how billions in the ‘big, beautiful bill’ boost Trump’s immigration crackdown
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President Donald Trump’s «big, beautiful bill» was signed into law earlier this month, with Republican lawmakers celebrating a broad range of GOP victories in the massive tax-and-spending legislation.
That includes billions of dollars aimed at Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration in the U.S. Nearly $30 billion is marked for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alone, and $45 billion is going toward building up detention facility capacity.
House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital last week hailed that funding boost, even as critics of the Trump administration accuse the White House of taking too heavy a hand on the issue.
«Having that money to now be able to work on the wall along the southern border, to be able to hire more agents, to pay them more, to invest in the technology, to patrol and secure the border – it is hugely important,» Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. «If you ask President Trump, that was the most important issue of the 2024 election.»
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President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda got a huge boost in the «big, beautiful bill.» (Win McNamee/Getty Images and ICE)
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Tenn., who chairs the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the detention facility funding is particularly significant.
Guest urged ICE to use those funds to ramp up «targeted» enforcement against illegal immigrants.
It comes as many on the left and some on the right have urged the Trump administration not to go too far in rounding up suspected illegal immigrants who otherwise pose no known threat to the public.
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Rep. Michael Guest urged the funding be used for «targeted» enforcement. (Getty Images)
«I think targeted enforcement, making sure that they’re going after the worst of the worst – those individuals who have either committed crimes in the United States or we learn after they released into the interior that they had committed crimes in their country origin, [or] those people who have final orders of removal,» Guest said.
«Those are the people that I believe that ICE needs to be targeting. Those are the people where you see widespread support from the American public that they want to get off the street.»
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., pointed out that ICE had been asking for that funding for some time.
«Tom Homan has done a tremendous job. He’s indicated for a while he needs more money to keep doing his job. And he’s being fought by everybody, particularly the sanctuary cities, to prevent that from happening,» Norman said. «The least we can do is provide the funding, and we did it.»
And Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., said he hoped the increased border and immigration crackdown would help fight the ongoing drug crisis still plaguing the U.S.
Rep. Ralph Norman said border czar Tom Homan has «done a tremendous job.» (Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
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«So in order to have a secured border, in order get rid of these criminal, illegal aliens that are raping and murdering American citizens on the regular, we have to have a very strong immigration enforcement system,» Van Orden said.
Reps. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., highlighted the funding for Trump’s border wall and for more ICE personnel, respectively.
The bill passed the House earlier this month and was signed into law by Trump on the Fourth of July.
In addition to funding immigration operations, it also extends key parts of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), rolls back some Biden administration-era green energy subsidies, and imposes new work requirements for federal aid.
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Ukrainians are taking to the streets after the passage of a controversial bill threatening the autonomy of two anti-corruption agencies.
The legislation gives the general prosecutor — who is appointed by the president — increased authority over the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now facing the largest protests since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Demonstrators gathered outside the presidential administration in Kyiv, while other protests took place in smaller cities across the country.
Ukrainians protest in the first wartime rally against a newly passed law, which curbs independence of anti-corruption institutions, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in central Lviv, Ukraine, on July 22, 2025. (REUTERS/Roman Baluk)
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The vote came one day after two NABU officials were arrested over alleged ties to Russia, according to Reuters. The outlet said that Ukraine’s domestic security agency, which carried out the arrests, also conducted background checks.
«I gathered all heads of Ukraine’s law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies, along with the Prosecutor General. It was a much-needed meeting — a frank and constructive conversation that truly helps,» Zelenskyy wrote on X. «We all share a common enemy: the Russian occupiers. And defending the Ukrainian state requires a strong enough law enforcement and anti-corruption system — one that ensures a real sense of justice.»
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (not pictured) hold a joint press conference during the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 (URC2025) at Roma Convention Center La Nuvola, on July 10, 2025, in Rome, Italy. (Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
SENATE MOVES TO REIN IN TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S FLUCTUATING UKRAINE POLICY
«In effect, if this bill becomes law, the head of SAPO will become a nominal figure, while NABU will lose its independence and turn into a subdivision of the prosecutor general’s office,» the agencies said in a joint statement on Telegram, according to the Associated Press.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos expressed concern over the vote, saying «the dismantling of key safeguards protecting NABU’s independence is a serious step back.»
Zelenskyy said in another X post, following a meeting that included NABU Director Semen Kryvonos, SAPO Prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, and Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk, that «anti-corruption infrastructure» needs to be «cleared» of «Russian influence.»
Protesters hold placards during a rally against a law that restricts independence of anti‑corruption institutions on July 22, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ivan Antypenko/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC «UA:PBC»/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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The Ukrainian government’s latest move risks endangering its bid to join the European Union, as a crackdown on internal corruption is a requirement. Additionally, it could strain the warming relationship between Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump, who has accused the Ukrainian leader of being a «dictator without elections.»
Both the U.S. and the E.U. have backed activists in Ukraine demanding independent institutions be established and empowered to clean up corruption, according to Axios. However, the pressure dropped significantly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
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