Refuses to cancel hearing

Judge refuses to cancel hearing over Trump admin's efforts to "facilitate" return of mistakenly deported man

From CNN's Devan Cole

A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s request to cancel a hearing set for Friday in the case of a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

US District Judge Paula Xinis is giving the administration until 11:30 a.m. ET today to provide her with a sworn statement from an individual “with personal knowledge” of the steps the government has or is planning to take to secure the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was deported on March 15. She had previously ordered that declaration to be submitted by 9:30 a.m. ET, but the Department of Justice asked for an extension just as the deadline passed.

In a sharply worded order, the judge was critical of the administration’s claim that it needed more time to review a Supreme Court order issued Thursday that endorsed her earlier directive that it work to secure Abrego Garcia’s return to the US.

“The Defendants’ act of sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was wholly illegal from the moment it happened, and Defendants have been on notice of the same,” Xinis wrote. “The Defendants’ suggestion that they need time to meaningfully review a four-page Order that reaffirms this basic principle blinks at reality.”

The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET in Greenbelt, Maryland.