'Like nailing jello to a wall': Judge scolds DOJ for shifting positions on Abrego deportation [View all]

[shelshaw]

I’m thinking of something other than jello…

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nailing-jello-wall-judge-scolds-190134265.html

A federal judge grew frustrated Monday over the Trump administration’s shifting claims about its handling of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s illegal deportation to El Salvador — and whether it plans to deport him again before a criminal case against him is resolved.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said getting certain answers from the administration was like “nailing jello to a wall” and ordered the Justice Department to produce a witness from the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday to testify about its designs for Abrego.

Abrego is currently incarcerated in Tennessee, where he faces federal human smuggling charges. A magistrate judge initially ordered him released from custody but agreed to a last-ditch request by Abrego to remain in detention for fear that the administration intends to immediately deport him if released. His attorneys say the criminal case was concocted by the administration on flimsy evidence in order to persuade the government of El Salvador [
to return Abrego to the United States in June.

Xinis pressed the Justice Department on those claims Monday, noting that officials testified in Abrego’s criminal case that the investigation of didn’t begin until April 28 — more than a month after he was illegally deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order finding he could face persecution there at the hands of a local gang.