Court denies Trump administration’s appeal against order to ‘facilitate’ return of wrongly deported US man – live

A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by the justice department to halt a judge’s investigation into whether theTrump administrationviolated court orders to “facilitate” the release ofKilmar Ábrego García,the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador. In its order on Thursday, the court said the Trump administration’s request to bar US district judge Paula Xinis from opening her inquiry was “both extraordinary and premature”. We shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the supreme court’s recent decision,” the order states. “It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all,” it continues. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear. In their unanimous opinion issued today, aUS appeals court warned the Trumpadministrationthat battles against the judiciary could undermine public confidence, Reuters reported. Part of thefourth US circuit court of appeals, the three-judge panel said the executive branch and the courts were “grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both.” The strongly worded unanimous opinion came as the panel denied Trump’s appeal to stop an order from a federal judge who is seeking more detail on whether the administration took any steps to returnKilmar Ábrego García,a request the court said was “shocking”.“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naive to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos,” wroteUS circuit judge J Harvie Wilkinson, who was appointed by Republican president Ronald Reagan. “This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.” TheInternal Revenue Service (IRS)is reportedly planning to revokeHarvard University’s tax-exempt status in what would be a probably illegal move amid Donald Trump’s concerted attack on the independence of US institutions of higher education. TheDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS)said late on Wednesday that Harvard would lose its ability to enrol foreign students if it did not meet demands theTrump administrationdemands to share information on some visa holders. A US appeals court denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay of Judge Paula Xinis’ order in the case ofKilmar Ábrego García,the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador. The court described the administration’s request as “shocking”. Cory Booker,a Democratic senator from New Jersey, reportedly plans to travel to El Salvador, as Democrats seek to pressure the Trump administration to return Ábrego García. Maryland senatorChris Van Hollen,who traveled to El Salvador this week, said he attempted to drive to the prison where his Maryland constituent is being held, but was stopped by the military at a checkpoint. Donald Trumpcondemned the Federal Reserve chair,Jerome Powell,for not lowering US interest rates, and expressed a wish for him to be gone from his role. Trump claimed Powell would resign if he asked him to. Powell himself has said that he would not resign if asked to do so by the president. Italian prime ministerGiorgia Melonisaid Trump had accepted her invitation for an official trip to Rome, as the pair met in Washington in an attempt by Meloni to bridge the gap between the EU and US amid trade tariff tensions. Thesupreme courtsaid it will hear arguments next month over Trump’s bid to broadly enforce his executive order to restrict automaticbirthright citizenship.The court will hear arguments in the case set on 15 May. Rümeysa Öztürk,a Turkish PhD student and former Fulbright scholar detained after co-authoring a campus newspaper op-ed about Gaza has been denied bond by an immigration judge. Senate minority leaderChuck Schumercalled on the justice department to investigate whether the arson attack on Pennsylvania governorJosh Shapiro’s home qualifies as a federal hate crime. James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee, andElise Stefanik,chair of the House Republican leadership, have launched an investigation intoHarvard University, accusing the university of a “lack of compliance with civil rights laws”. In a letter on Thursday, Comer and Stefanik directed Harvard to provide documents relating to hiring, admissions and diversity, equity and inclusion. The congressional inquiry follows Harvard’s refusal to comply with demands from theTrump administration. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part ofDonald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, six people familiar with the matter said. Musk’s rocket and satellite company is partnering with the software maker Palantir and the drone builder Anduril on a bid to build key parts of Golden Dome, the sources said, which has drawn significant interest from the technology sector’s burgeoning base of defense startups. All three companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump. Here’smore on the orderfrom a US appeals court denying the justice department’s request to suspend Judge Paula Xinis’s investigation into whether the Trump administration complied with an order to returnKilmar Ábrego García,the man wrongly deported to El Salvador. A three-judge panel from the 4th US circuit court of appeals unanimously refused to suspend Xinis’s decision to order sworn testimony byTrump administrationofficials to determine if they complied with her instruction to “facilitate” Ábrego García’s return. The panel said the administration’s claim that it could not do anything to free Ábrego García and return him to the US “should be shocking”. It comes after the justice department appealed after Xinis on Tuesday ordered sworn testimony by at least four officials who work for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. The executive and judicial branches of the federal government “come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both,” the judges wrote in their order today. “This is a losing proposition all around. The Judiciary will lose much from the constant intimations of its illegitimacy, to which by dent of custom and detachment we can only sparingly reply. The Executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. A Massachusetts family is demanding answers fromUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice),complaining its agents smashed a car window with a large hammer and detained a man whom they say had applied for asylum. A lawyer for the family also claims agents were not looking for the man in the car,Juan Francisco Mendez,when they grabbed him on Monday in New Bedford while he was driving to a dental appointment. He is now believed to have been taken into Ice detention. The lawyer, Ondine Galvez-Sniffin, told the Associated Press in an interview that the agents claimed they were looking for another man with a different name before they dragged Mendez and his wife out of the car. A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by the justice department to halt a judge’s investigation into whether theTrump administrationviolated court orders to “facilitate” the release ofKilmar Ábrego García,the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador. In its order on Thursday, the court said the Trump administration’s request to bar US district judge Paula Xinis from opening her inquiry was “both extraordinary and premature”. We shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the supreme court’s recent decision,” the order states. “It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all,” it continues. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear. Thesupreme courtsaid it will hear arguments next month overDonald Trump’s bid to restrict automatic birthright citizenship. The justices, in an unsigned order, did not immediately act on a request by Trump’s administration to narrow the scope of three nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges in Washington state, Massachusetts and Maryland that halted his 20 January order while the matter is litigated. Instead, the court deferred any decision on that request until it hears arguments in the case set for 15 May. Democratic senatorChris Van Hollensaid he attempted to drive to the prison where his Maryland constituentKilmar Ábrego Garcíais being held, but was stopped by the military at a checkpoint. Ábrego García was deported to his home country last month due to what theTrump administrationhas admitted was an “administrative error”. The supreme court has ordered the government to “facilitate” his return to the United States, butDonald Trumphas refused to do so. Van Hollen arrived in El Salvador yesterday intending to meet Ábrego García and report on his well-being to his family. The senator met with vice-presidentFélix Ulloa, who refused his request to see the deportee in person, or speak to him on the phone. The senator said he attempted today to drive to the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), where Ábrego García is being held. Van Hollen said in a video filmed on the side of a road: I understand we’re about three kilometers now from Cecot, and as you can see, they’re letting other cars go by, but they stopped us because they’re under orders not to allow us to proceed to check on the well being of Kilmar Ábrego García. You canwatch it here.Here’s more on Van Hollen’s attempt to visit Ábrego García. Trumpsaid he had been “fully briefed” on themass shooting at Florida State University,which has reportedly resulted in multiple casualties. “It’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place,” he said.