President Donald Trump’s Justice Department again asserted the state secrets privilege to withhold information in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case, according to multiple reports.
Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant, was deported to El Salvador because the administration maintained he’s a member of the MS-13 gang. Democrats and Trump critics have demanded his return to the U.S.
Although administration officials have admitted that a paperwork error was committed while processing Abrego Garcia’s deportation, they have said his return to the U.S. simply would result in another deportation.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order for additional legal papers in the case concerned the administration’s “invocations of privilege, principally the state secrets and deliberative process privileges,” Politico reported Wednesday.
It was the second time in recent weeks the administration invoked the state secrets privilege in response to judiciary demands for information about potential violations of court orders related to summary deportations.
In March, the administration invoked a “state secrets privilege” and refused to give U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg any additional information about the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Boasberg has not ruled whether he considers the privilege assertion to be valid, though he has expressed doubts, Politico reported.
Xinis, who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, gave the two sides until Monday to submit the filings “addressing the legal and factual bases for the invocation of those privileges.”
Xinis last month told an administration attorney privileges are asserted, justifications for each claim must be submitted.
Two judges have ruled the administration cannot use the 18th-century wartime law to deport migrants.
District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York on Tuesday found the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 cannot be used against the Tren de Aragua gang because it is not attacking the United States. “TdA may well be engaged in narcotics trafficking, but that is a criminal matter not an invasion or predatory incursion,” Hellerstein wrote.
Last week, a Trump-appointed judge in South Texas issued a similar ruling, also barring the administration from removing people from that region under the Alien Enemies Act.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month unanimously ruled that people held under the Alien Enemies Act had the right to contest their removal in court.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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