DOJ BLOCKS Liberal Judge – NO MERCY!
At a Glance
- DOJ firmly rejected contempt motion from attorneys representing alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia
- Trump administration asserts courts cannot direct the Executive Branch on foreign relations matters
- Judge Paula Xinis demanded daily updates on efforts to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador
- DOJ clarified “facilitate” in Supreme Court order means removing domestic obstacles, not forcibly retrieving someone from a sovereign nation
- Administration maintains it has fulfilled Supreme Court’s directive while respecting separation of powers
Another Liberal Judge Trying to Run Foreign Policy
The Biden-appointed federal judges are at it again, folks. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, seems to think she can direct international relations from her bench in Maryland. In a remarkable display of judicial overreach, she’s demanding the Trump administration provide “daily updates” on efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national with alleged MS-13 gang ties, who was deported to El Salvador. The judge is practically micromanaging the State Department now.
Judge Xinis made her frustrations abundantly clear in court, saying, “From now until compliance, [I am] going to require daily statuses, daily updates. We’re going to make a record of what, if anything, the government is doing or not doing.” This is the same judge who later complained, “The Supreme Court has spoken quite clearly. And yet, I can’t get an answer today about what you’ve done in the past, which means, again, the record as it stands, is that nothing has been done.”
DOJ Strikes Back: That’s Not How Government Works
Thank goodness someone in Washington still understands the Constitution. The Department of Justice has issued a strong, unambiguous response to this judicial power grab, making it clear that federal courts simply do not have the authority to dictate how the executive branch conducts foreign policy. In their filing rejecting the contempt motion, the DOJ didn’t mince words about the proper role of each branch of government – something Democrats seem to conveniently forget whenever it suits their agenda.
“The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” the Trump administration officials stated firmly in their response to the court. They added, “That is the ‘exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations.'”
Constitutional Order Restored
The DOJ systematically dismantled the premise of the contempt motion, explaining in their brief that the plaintiffs’ demands completely misunderstood the Supreme Court’s guidance. “The relief sought by Plaintiffs is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s instruction requiring this Court to respect the President’s Article II authority to manage foreign policy,” the DOJ stated in their brief, getting right to the heart of the constitutional issue at stake here.
“Defendants understand ‘facilitate’ to mean what that term has long meant in the immigration context, namely actions allowing an alien to enter the United States. Taking ‘all available steps to facilitate’ the return of Abrego Garcia is thus best read as taking all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here. Indeed, no other reading of ‘facilitate is tenable—or constitutional—here.”
The Real Issue: Sovereignty and Security
What’s often forgotten in these legal theatrics is that El Salvador is a sovereign nation with its own laws and justice system. Abrego Garcia is currently being held under El Salvador’s domestic authority. Perhaps Judge Xinis would prefer we send in the Marines to extract him? Or maybe put economic sanctions on a struggling nation until they bend to her judicial will? The left’s utter disregard for national sovereignty – both ours and others – never ceases to amaze.
“Any further intrusion into this sensitive process—and any directive from the Court to take action against the nation of El Salvador—would be inconsistent with the care counseled by the Supreme Court,” the government wisely noted in their filing. Translation: judges don’t get to cause international incidents because they don’t like the pace of diplomacy.
Let’s not forget the Trump administration has maintained that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member – a claim his attorneys predictably deny. This whole saga perfectly illustrates the left’s priorities: demanding extraordinary measures to bring a suspected gang member back to the United States while simultaneously fighting to keep our southern border wide open for more just like him. The circus continues, but at least someone at the DOJ still respects the Constitution.
Posts
