The Trump administration rejected a federal judge's order to provide by Friday a status update on a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant's return to the United States, calling the deadline "impracticable".
"Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review," Trump administration attorneys wrote in a filing.
Lawyers for Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in their own filing, expressed outrage for the "arrogance and cruelty" of the Trump administration, accusing it of continuing to "delay, obfuscate and flout court orders while a man's life and safety is at risk."
After a Friday hearing that lasted barely half an hour, district judge Paula Xinis said the government had "failed to comply".
The administration would have to file a declaration on Abrego Garcia's status "each day... until further order", starting on Saturday.
She further scheduled a new in-person hearing for April 15.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran living in the eastern state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was arrested March 12 by immigration police. He was among more than 200 people deported on March 15 to a notorious prison in El Salvador as part of Donald Trump's migration crackdown.
Abrego Garcia's family has continued to proclaim his innocence, and a Trump administration lawyer has acknowledged that his expulsion followed an "administrative error."
Supreme Court battle
A federal court had ruled in 2019 that he could not be expelled to El Salvador, where his life could be in danger.
The administration has said it is powerless to secure Abrego Garcia's return and insisted he was part of MS-13, a Salvadoran gang the United States classified as terrorist in February.
Last week, judge Xinis said she had seen no evidence Abrego Garcia was a gang member and ordered the government to "effectuate" his return to the United States by April 7 at the latest.
The conservative-dominated Supreme Court later held that the administration was indeed required to "facilitate" Garcia's return and to ensure that he be treated as if he had never been wrongly deported.
But the justices also directed Xinis to clarify her order -- saying she may have exceeded her authority and needed to reflect "due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs."
She subsequently amended her wording to say the government must take "all available steps to facilitate" his return "as soon as possible".
At that point, Xinis also directed the administration to provide an update on Abrego Garcia's current location and detention status, and to explain by Friday the legal grounds on which he was detained.
Test of power
At the hearing Friday, the Trump administration said it needed more time, requesting an April 15 date for response to the judge's questions and a postponement of the hearing to April 16.
Xinis refused, maintaining Friday's hearing and extending the deadline to provide an update within hours.
The Trump administration wrote that it was "unable to provide the information... on the impracticable deadline set by the Court."
Most of those expelled along with Abrego Garcia were accused by the administration of belonging to a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, which Washington has labeled a terrorist organization.
The case represents the only time the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting anyone, though the Justice Department subsequently suspended the lawyer who made that concession, saying he had failed to vigorously defend the government position.
The administration has described the case as a key test of the president's power to conduct sensitive national security-related operations.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
