'Lawless and insane': Trump admin readies for fight after judges block Abrego Garcia removal for now

Fox News

4 days ago

A trio of judges slowed the Trump administration's effort Wednesday to immediately deport Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia for a second time, in a series of back-to-back court orders that were praised by Abrego's attorneys — but had Trump officials posturing for a fight.
The orders came in a span of 90 minutes from the U.S. districts of Tennessee and Maryland and halted, for now, the Trump administration's stated plans to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest Abrego Garcia and immediately begin removal proceedings to deport him to a third country, such as Mexico or South Sudan. Justice Department officials acknowledged that plan in court earlier this month, telling a federal judge in Maryland that the handoff from U.S. marshals to ICE officials would likely take place outside the federal prison where Abrego Garcia is currently being held.
Those fears were bolstered further after senior Trump administration officials took to social media Wednesday to rail against the string of court rulings. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin vowed on X Wednesday that Abrego Garcia "will never walk America's streets again."
"The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can't arrest an MS-13 gang member, indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking, and subject to immigration arrest under federal law is LAWLESS AND INSANE," she said.
The remarks prompted fresh concerns from immigration advocates, as well as lawyers for Abrego Garcia and his family.
"We have heightened, ongoing concerns about the Trump administration's compliance with any and all those involved" in the case, Chris Newman, an attorney who represents Abrego Garcia's family, told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday after the orders.
His concerns came despite the string of near-term victories for Abrego Garcia, aimed at affording him due process and access to counsel ahead of his removal.
In Nashville, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw on Wednesday ordered Abrego Garcia's release from criminal custody pending trial, writing in a 37-page ruling that the federal government "fails to provide any evidence that there is something in Abrego's history, or his exhibited characteristics, that warrants detention."
He also poured cold water on the dozens of allegations made by Trump officials, including by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in Nashville last week, that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member.
"Based on the record before it, for the court to find that Abrego is member of or in affiliation with MS13, it would have to make so many inferences from the government's proffered evidence in its favor that such conclusion would border on fanciful," he said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, tasked with implementing that order, stayed Abrego Garcia's release from criminal detention for 30 days, a request made by his attorneys earlier this week.
Two minutes after Judge Crenshaw's ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, the judge overseeing his civil case in Maryland, issued an emergency order blocking the administration from immediately taking Abrego Garcia into ICE custody, citing concerns he would otherwise be removed immediately and without due process.
She also ordered that Abrego Garcia be sent to the ICE Order of Supervision at the Baltimore Field Office, and that the Trump administration notify Abrego Garcia and his counsel of any plans to remove him to a third country 72 hours in advance, to ensure access to counsel and to challenge the country of removal.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia praised the court orders Wednesday, though they stressed there is a long road ahead — and one that remains fraught with uncertainty.
"These rulings are a powerful rebuke of the government's lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for Kilmar's due process rights," Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, said Wednesday.
However, Abrego Garcia's case has been the center of a monthslong legal maelstrom and is one that critics argue has allowed the Trump administration to test its mettle on immigration enforcement and its ability to slow-walk or evade compliance with federal courts.
Whether the administration will appeal the orders Wednesday, or otherwise honor them, remains to be seen.
The Supreme Court has in recent months sided with the Trump administration on a number of key court cases, as well as a flurry of emergency orders, suggesting they could move for emergency intervention at that level.
Though justices on the high court ordered unanimously that the Trump administration facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. earlier from El Salvador this year, it's unclear whether they would intervene at this point to head off the administration's planned removal. Any challenge to the Tennessee orders, including the 30-day stay, would also be heard by the conservative-majority U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which could block the lower court orders from taking force.
Others noted the Trump administration's posture in recent immigration cases, including in the wake of their removal of hundreds of migrants to El Salvador's CECOT prison earlier this year.
Critics argue the Trump administration has been slow, or downright recalcitrant, to comply with court orders — and their actions prompted two judges in Washington, D.C., and Maryland to threaten potential contempt proceedings earlier this year. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's April ruling, which found there was probable cause to hold the administration in contempt for violating his order blocking them from using a wartime law to deport migrants to CECOT, was stayed by a federal appeals court.
On the other hand, Trump officials have railed against the "activist" judges, who they argue have blocked their agenda and overstepped their court powers.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia and his family say they are clear-eyed about the administration and expected attempts to challenge the orders, even while the details of the efforts remain unclear.
"It's now a matter of public record that their posture since the beginning is to say, 'F--- you' to the courts," Newman, the lawyer for Abrego Garcia's family, said in an interview.
"So, to say that we are being vigilant about potential bad faith efforts by the Trump administration would be an understatement," he said.