Sunday Night’s (Mostly Non-) Update: Garcia v. Noem (USDC, MMD)

No surprise; Kristi Noem wants everything stopped. . . because the president of El Salvador is meeting with Trump on Monday.

And so, she refuses to give any additional updates on Mr. Garcia's status, or on the terms of the contract that the United States has with El Salvador to hold detainees for the US.

However, she all but admits that that contract exists. We will eventually see it -- if she doesn't release him.

Now, as I said previously, this is not a diplomatic matter at all; this is simply a matter of giving clear instructions under a written contract. Here's the latest shifting sand from Noem, but I won't quote it. I will only quote what Mr. Garcia's lawyers asked for last night:

. . .President Trump confirmed that the United States has the power to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from prison and return to the United States: “If the Supreme Court said, ‘Bring somebody back,’ I would do that.. . . I respect the Supreme Court.”

Of course, that is precisely what the Supreme Court did when it ruled that this Court’s injunction “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Noem et al. v. Abrego Garcia et al., 604 U.S. ____, 2025 WL 1077101, at *1 (Apr. 10, 2025). The Government should be required to comply with the Supreme Court’s order that it “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” by taking all available steps to release and return Abrego Garcia to Maryland. . . .

Onward, resolutely. For the first time tonight, these Noemites make a claim that in 2019, while Trump was in office the first time, some immigration judge changed Mr. Garcia status. But she offered no evidence of that supposed fact... nor what specifically was changed, and how Mr. Garcia was made aware of it. [Yes, I am more than a little skeptical that those events didn't happen at all, but they've been "papered" -- after the fact -- by people loyal to Noem and/or Trump.] But as I say, that could not have happened to allow his deportation without a full due process hearing -- here in 2025. That hearing never occurred -- everyone concedes that. He needs to return to the United States.

नमस्ते