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Greenbelt, MD- A federal judge in Maryland on Friday vowed to issue an order “as quickly as possible” in a case involving Salvadorian migrant Kilmer Abrego Garcia’s legal status and the Trump administration’s plan to deport him from the U.S. to a third country — his case followed an extraordinary marathon hearing that lasted nearly seven hours — and has dominated headlines and federal court for months.
U.S. District Judge Paula Zinis adjourned court Friday evening with a promise to rule on the case as soon as possible. However, much of the hearing was interrupted by Zinis’s incredulous objections and frequent requests for “sidebars” with attorneys arguing on both sides of the case.
For Zinis, a judge who has presided over various iterations of Abrego’s civil case since March, the repeated pauses were a bit unusual, he acknowledged.
She quipped, “I’ve always been a proponent of smooth jazz.”
Parts of the day went much less smoothly. Zinis rebuked the Trump administration for its failure to present a witness to the court to testify about what steps it had taken to facilitate Abrego García’s deportation to a third country, and described the official who appeared as a witness “who knows nothing about the case”, and countries where they are considering removing him.
“This appears to be a direct violation of the court,” he said bluntly just before adjournment for the day.
Abrego Garcia will remain in the US for now as the judge has taken the case under advisement
Kilmer Abrego Garcia (right) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (left) attend a prayer vigil before entering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Zinis had ordered an evidentiary hearing on Monday with the stated goal of evaluating a request by Abrego García’s lawyers to release him from immigration custody pending further proceedings in his case, and to question a Trump administration official with “direct” knowledge of the government’s efforts to facilitate his deportation to Eswatini, a third country where Trump officials said they intended to send him.
Yet, the hearing was more remarkable for what it failed to produce than what it produced. Judge Zinis struggled to clarify seemingly contradictory statements and testimony from Trump officials, including which countries did or did not agree to accept Abrego García, and when.
Trump administration lawyers admitted to Zinis that they had previously identified three African countries – Uganda, Ghana and Eswatini – as suitable third countries to deport Abrego García until the emergency order keeping him in the US was dissolved.
But he erroneously represented the situation in both Ghana and Eswatini. At the time of this writing, none of the three governments mentioned have agreed to accept Abrego García.
Zinis shed light on the details on Friday evening.
“Now that we know Costa Rica is at the negotiating table, have there been any conversations about removing [there]?” she asked Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign, who said that did not happen.
“Why not?” Xinis pressed. “You don’t want them in the country — you said that,” he said, referring to the Trump administration’s views more broadly. “You have a country that will take him. You have a plaintiff who says ‘I’ll go there.'”
He said the government is still pressuring other countries to accept it, a notion that is a bit hard to “swallow”.
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Kilmer Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, stands with protesters rallying in support of Garcia outside the federal courthouse during a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty) (Getty Images)
Several key details emerged after hours of rigorous questioning of John Schultz, ICE’s deputy assistant director of enforcement and removal operations, whom the government introduced as its witness.
Despite his 20 years of experience at DHS, he appears to have little knowledge of the case in question. He failed to answer most of the questions Zinis asked about the government’s plans to deport Abrego García – including basic questions about who within the ranks of DHS was appointed to handle Abrego García’s case, and the status of various requests for deportation and communication with the countries he identified.
Asked if he was involved in Abrego Garcia’s case before Tuesday, Schultz said only that he “looked at his case in March,” but could not recall “in what capacity.”
Trump officials also told Zinis during court on Friday that the government of Eswatini initially refused to admit Abrego Garcia, but they are currently having “additional discussions” on the matter and have not reached consensus.
Should the government of Eswatini agree to take Abrego García, Trump officials said, they could facilitate a plane to transport him “within 72 hours” unless Zinis breached his court order requiring Abrego García to be held in the continental US.
The other two countries, Uganda and Ghana, were more categorical in their denials.
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Ghana’s foreign minister, Sam Okudjato Ablakwa, said on social media Friday morning that his country had rejected the US request to accept Abrego Garcia, adding that he had “directly and clearly told this to US authorities.”
Abrego García’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, pointed to the lack of assurances from three African countries, including two that have rejected his claim outright.
Rossman argued that the government’s goal was to “identify a series of countries that have no connection to Abrego García and that have shown no willingness to take him.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorney speaks to reporters outside the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, in July. (Brain Deppish/Fox News Digital) (Brain Deppish/Fox News Digital)
Rather, they argued, he should be sent to Costa Rica, the country to which DHS officials had originally offered to send him, in coordination with a guilty plea in a separate criminal case in Nashville, where he was charged with two counts of trafficking.
Hours after he rejected the plea offer, the government sent his lawyers a notice of removal to Uganda. Despite the language of the notice, the Ugandan government has not yet been asked to take over Abrego Garcia, let alone agreed to. That detail was one of many painstakingly discovered over the course of several hours Friday.
Meanwhile, Abrego García’s lawyers told the court that he is “ready and able to board a plane immediately” to Costa Rica if ICE agrees to send him there.
His attorney, Andrew Rossman, argued that the court should otherwise order his release from immigration detention, arguing that “the Government has not and is not currently detaining Mr. Abrego for the purposes of effecting legal removal,” but rather as a means of punishment.
The government of Costa Rica agreed to accept Abrego García and outlined some of the assurances it had given the US in writing, including granting him refugee status there, and a promise not to “return” him or deport him again to his home country of El Salvador, in keeping with an immigration judge’s 2019 court order.
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For her part, Zinis appeared sympathetic to that viewpoint.
He also expressed new frustration with Trump administration lawyers, whom he said have twice now failed to provide the court with a witness who could speak to Abrego García’s case.
“Before Monday, what efforts did the government make to find a third country that would accept Abrego?” Zinis asked Trump administration officials at one point during the hearing.
When he had difficulty answering, he replied, “This is very troubling to me.”
Trump administration lawyers are free to appeal any of Judge Zinis’ orders to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, as the DOJ’s ensign has indicated they may do so shortly before the court adjourns.
Zinis later warned that in his view, the government had little margin for error.
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“I’m trying really hard to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she told Ensign. But at this point, it’s getting closer to “three strikes, you’re out.”
