A federal judge in the US state of Maryland has ruled that the Department of Justice cannot delay the trial of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, facing deportation, citing the ongoing government shutdown. District Court Judge Paula Xinis said Monday during a hearing in Maryland that the case was of “such importance” that she was “duty bound” to continue with the proceedings. Kilmar Abrego Garcia's fight to stay in US The 30-year-old who entered the US illegally as a teenager is the central figure of arguably the most high-profile deportation effort by the Trump administration. He was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, but the Trump administration was forced to bring him back from his country of birth following a court order. The judge noted that there is "insufficient evidence" that the Department of Homeland Security has decided to remove Abrego Garcia Trump administration want him deported to Uganda or Eswatini The government was prohibited from deporting Abrego Garcia, who is currently detained in Pennsylvania, to El Salvador. Instead, the Trump administration has suggested that Abrego Garcia could be deported to another country, including possibly Uganda or Eswatini. Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Abrego Garcia, repeatedly referring to him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the fact that he has not been convicted of any crimes. Judge Xinis has currently banned the administration from removing Abrego Garcia from the continental United States. Lawyers have no inform about Eswatini plan During the hearing on Monday, Judge Xinis also expressed frustration with the government’s inability to provide concrete information about what steps, if any, had been taken to carry out the Eswatini deportation plan. “That’s not a tenable position. You’ve either done it or you haven’t,” she said. “It’s not a hard question.” People attend a protest rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, to support Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (AP Photo) Government attorneys said they were unable to find anyone who could address the judge’s question and cited the ongoing shutdown as one possible reason. The judge gave the government until Wednesday afternoon to file any evidence about steps taken to remove Abrego Garcia to Eswatini. She also asked the government to provide witnesses who can speak first-hand to those efforts. Last week Abrego Garcia suffered a setback after an immigration judge in Baltimore rejected an application by his lawyers to reopen his 2019 immigration case. In 2019, Abrego Garcia was arrested by immigration agents, but his request for asylum was rejected as he had been in the US for more than a year.
