Judge in Abrego Garcia case to review whether Trump administration can keep case details secret

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: May 16, 2025 / 8:24 AM EDT


A federal judge is hearing arguments Friday on the government's assertions of privilege to withhold details of what it's done to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador. Earlier this month, the Trump administration appeared to invoke the state secrets privilege to withhold information in the case from Abrego Garcia's attorneys as they continue to seek his release. His lawyers say the government is stonewalling court-ordered fact finding in the case.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis allowed the expedited discovery process to begin last month after Abrego Garcia's legal team accused the Trump administration of failing to follow her order to facilitate his return. The Supreme Court had agreed that the administration had to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from Salvadoran custody and "ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador."

Abrego Garcia, who was born in El Salvador, entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and has been living in Maryland since then. In 2019, he was granted a withholding of removal, a legal status that prevented the government from deporting him back to his home country of El Salvador because of a risk of persecution by local gangs. But in March, Abrego Garcia was among the hundreds of migrants sent by the Trump administration to be held in CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

A federal immigration official acknowledged that his removal to El Salvador was an "administrative error," but the administration has since declined to return him to the U.S. Instead, top administration officials have claimed Abrego Garcia is a member of the gang MS-13, citing allegations from a confidential informant. His lawyers, however, argue that Abrego Garcia is not a member of MS-13 or any other gang, and has never been charged or convicted of any crimes in the U.S., El Salvador or any other country.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-case-trump-state-secrets-privilege/

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. Historically,

judges defer to national security, and rarely examine whether the claim is valid. Allowing Garcia back would mean him being called before committees to reveal torture and abuse. They will never allow this, and the "state secrets" ploy give the judges an out so they can shrug and wash their hands of the issue, Pontius Pilate style.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. "Allowing Garcia back would mean him being called before committees to reveal torture and abuse."

Congress has a SCIF and have had many interviews/interrogatories, etc, in that environment. And I would expect that in this case, they could always "play dumb" and claim that it didn't happen in a U.S. prison so "it wasn't them".

[azureblue]

3. The Judge should return him to the US

while All this legal crap Trump is pulling, is going on. He should never had been deported in the first place..

[bluestarone]

4. What would be the reason for State secrets?

It's total bullshit to allow this bullshit to continue. To my way of thinking (which don't count) is this judge needs to deny their request, then ask supreme court for CLARITY of their order word FACILITATE! That was a so called 9-0 decision. I say it was a LOOPHOLE word.