Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, held a press briefing after the Supreme Court ordered the Trump Administration to 'facilitate' his return, and after Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Department of Justice to provide daily updates on Abrego Garcia.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon. My name is Simon Sandoval-Motionberg with the law firm of Murray Osorio.
00:11This afternoon we were back in front of Judge Zinnis on remand from the United States Supreme
00:15Court, which last night issued a unanimous 9-0 decision affirming the order of the district
00:24judge that they need to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States
00:31and give him all of the due process that he should have had before he was illegally deported
00:37and that they need to do that as quickly as possible and that they need to share with
00:43the court information about what they're doing. After the Supreme Court issued that order,
00:49the district judge issued a further order clarifying her ruling and explaining that the government
00:56needs to take all steps reasonable to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia to the United States
01:04and that in the meanwhile it needs to provide the court with information, specifically three pieces
01:11of information. One, where is Mr. Abrego Garcia right now? What is his custodial status? Two,
01:19what has the government done so far to try to bring him back? There were several days when the court's
01:27order was in effect prior to the Supreme Court entering a stay and now it's been more than 12
01:35hours since the Supreme Court lifted the stay. What has the government done during that time to bring
01:42him back? And then three, what is the government planning to do to carry out the court's order,
01:50which is again to take all reasonable steps to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia to the
01:57United States as quickly as possible? The government refused to provide any of those pieces of information
02:04that the judge ordered them to provide. Not only the information about what future steps they're planning to take,
02:12they even refused to answer the question about what they've done so far, and they even refused to answer the
02:18question about where Kilmer Abrego Garcia is today. For the second time in this case, they sent a lawyer into court
02:26who had no answers. He explained that his clients, the government, have chosen not to give him any
02:34information, not to give him any evidence. And the district judge appropriately
02:40was not willing to accept their vague and unsubstantiated assertions that,
02:49don't worry, judge, we'll take care of this all in due course. The government attorney did say that they intend to
02:57comply with the order and bring him back. That's the bare minimum. They should have done that already. They've had
03:04plenty of time between the Supreme Court's order early yesterday evening and now. He should be here in the United States.
03:10It's a five hour flight. So the judge ordered that they provide detailed status updates on a daily
03:19basis, including as soon as tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. She's going to give
03:28our legal team the opportunity to respond to each one of those. We are also as plaintiffs counsel, we are
03:35not going to accept the government's generic and unsubstantiated assertions that they're working on this,
03:41that they're considering it, that they're debating it, that they're taking steps. We are also going to be
03:45insisting that they provide specific concrete details to the court, as well as
03:50specific names of specific individuals who actually know what is going on, instead of
03:56declarations or pleading signed by lawyers who then come into court and say, I actually have no personal knowledge.
04:02And then we'll be back in court on Wednesday. Simon, what does the judge, what power does this judge
04:11have if, in fact, she doesn't get satisfactory answers from the judge? The judge has considerable
04:17power to enforce her orders. What can she do? We are going to trust that after today's
04:28very strong words from the judge. The government is going to provide a meaningful and detailed
04:38status update tomorrow, Saturday. But if they don't, we'll respond and we'll tell the judge,
04:45you know, what relief we think she should order.
04:47Do you believe when they say the U.S. government, you don't need to look at it that way,
04:50the U.S. government will comply with the order of the Supreme Court? How do you take that statement?
04:55The judge has, I'm grateful. I shouldn't need to be grateful that they're going to comply with an
05:05order of the United States Supreme Court. But we are grateful at the very least that they acknowledge
05:08that they're going to comply with the order of the United States Supreme Court. The judge is
05:13very appropriately requiring them to provide daily updates about the steps that they're taking in
05:19order to do that. And if those updates are either A, not sufficiently detailed or B, reflect that
05:27they're not moving with all due haste, we are going to be back in front of the judge requesting relief.
05:34What did you think of their disagreement with her about what the Supreme Court had actually ordered?
05:39I think the judge sort of appropriately shut that down very quickly by saying that the Supreme Court
05:46affirmed her order, asked for clarification on one verb, and she provided that clarification in her
05:53subsequent order yesterday evening. Sir, I'd like to know, how concerned are you that you're not
06:00able to talk to your client, and what relief will you seek if you don't get the answer that you seek?
06:06I can't get into details about what relief we're going to be seeking. It really does depend on what the
06:10government comes up with in their next filing. What I can say is that we're not going to be sitting
06:15back and sort of waiting, waiting to see what they have to say on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
06:23If they don't take this, this order, if they don't take today's order seriously, we'll respond
06:27the court already ordered that last night. Last night the court ordered the government to take
06:46all reasonable steps to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia. So I didn't need to come into
06:52court today and ask the judge to order again what she already ordered last night. Now the question is,
06:56how are we going to know if the government is actually doing that? And that's what the judge
07:01put some very, very, very fine point on today. Simon, you've had cases where you said that ICE has
07:08actually gone and bent over backwards and bring people back who were deported illegally. How quickly
07:15were those cases carried out? Anything close to what's happening here? Yeah, there's no reason that this
07:21case needed to become a national issue. There's no reason that this case needed to go to the United
07:28States Supreme Court. And it's been the government that's done that at every step of the way. It's
07:32been the government that turned this into a national issue. It was the government who appealed the
07:36judge's original, very reasonable and modest order all the way up to the United States Supreme Court.
07:42And now it's the government who is coming into court saying, yes, judge, we blew off your first deadline.
07:50We haven't yet taken any steps or we're not prepared to show you what steps we've taken to comply with
07:56your order. Wrongful deportations happen from time to time. And when the government realizes that they've
08:04done that, they facilitate the return. They have a policy about it. Courts have ordered it
08:10all up and down the United States. For years, we provided several examples in our briefing.
08:16And the Supreme Court didn't have any issue whatsoever. Nine to zero unanimously agreed that
08:23the district judge's order that they facilitate his return was absolutely proper, is in effect today,
08:32right now. There was one verb that they weren't sure what it meant. They asked her to clarify it,
08:36and she did.
08:46Yeah, that was the most shocking thing of all that the the attorney for the government wasn't even
08:50prepared to answer the question, where is Kilmar Abrego today? And what is his custodial status?
08:58I was I was very dismayed and disheartened by the fact that they wouldn't answer such a
09:01straightforward question. In your position, you know nothing about his current state?
09:06No, neither we nor the family have been able to to make any contact with him. This is one of the
09:11principal human rights violations that occurs in that facility, is that, you know, inmates and
09:18detainees in that facility are held incommunicado. Simon, how disappointing is it that the government
09:23is pushing back and fighting this effort that you guys are trying to bring it back to the country?
09:27I had really hoped that after a 9-0 loss at the United States Supreme Court,
09:33they would essentially say, all right, we get it and start acting in good faith.
09:38I I do have hope that now that they've seen that the district judge
09:44is not going to be, you know, taking this lightly, that they will start acting in good faith,
09:51and that we're actually going to see a meaningful status report tomorrow that's going to detail
09:56meaningful activity taking place. But of course, if they don't, we'll be prepared to respond.
10:00I think it's preposterous that there be charges against him in El Salvador. He hasn't been in
10:11that country since the age of 16, about a decade ago. But in your reply, you said that
10:18you noted that the Solicitor General was claiming that there may be reasons for El Salvador to hold.
10:26The Solicitor General, in their last brief to the United States Supreme Court, sort of made a vague,
10:31kind of waved their hands at, well, you know, we might have some information that El Salvador might
10:36have some reason that they want to hold him. What we responded is, essentially, in keeping with what
10:42the judge said at the very start of the of the first hearing in this case last week, she started the
10:47first hearing in this case by saying, I'm going to decide this case based on the evidence in the
10:50record. And there's no evidence in the record of any criminality, gang ties, any of that stuff.
10:59I mean, at this point, I have to assume that if they had any of that evidence, they would have
11:02filed it. And that's essentially what the judge said today. Again, she reiterated, I'm going to
11:08assume based on the fact that you haven't filed any evidence, that you have no evidence.
11:12Well, the day of today, after the fall of the Supreme Court, ayer, that fell in a
11:26unanimous decision, 9-0, that the original order of the judge is correct and correct, that the
11:34U.S., the U.S., the U.S., the U.S. has to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to
11:40U.S., taking all the possible steps, reasonably possible, as soon as possible. That was the
11:47mistake of the Supreme Court at night. In the Supreme Court, there was one word, which is the
11:54word, EFECTUAR, which the Supreme Court said, well, we're not sure what the judge wanted to say when
12:00he said EFECTUAR, and therefore, this night, the night of ayer, the judge put a new order
12:07explaining that EFECTUAR means taking all the possible steps possible possible for Kilmar
12:16to return to the U.S.
12:18Then the judge said, okay, then you also have to tell me three things. First, where is Kilmar
12:26and under which custody? Second, what is what they have done until the date? Because they
12:33already had a week, during the half of this week, the order of the judge was in effect. What
12:41did you do during this time to make my order, to make my order, to make my order? And third,
12:49what is what you are going to do from here in advance to facilitate the return of Kilmar
12:56Obrego GarcÃa to the U.S.? The judge put a limit date. Before the audience of today, the
13:05U.S. had to answer those three questions. They did not. So the judge put an order. Well,
13:14first, he reaffirmed his order that the U.S. had to bring it back as soon as possible. And second,
13:21he ordered that daily, even on the weekend, they have to give an actualization to the court
13:28detailed and to a person who has personal knowledge, not an lawyer, but an official of the
13:36government has to update the court daily what is what they are doing. There will be another
13:43audience on Wednesday, but between here and Wednesday, if we are not conforming with what
13:51the government is doing or with the level of detail that the government is doing on their
13:56actions, we always can submit something written to the court.
14:01Abogado, ¿qué opciones tiene la jueza si el gobierno no le da esta información que
14:07ella solicitó? ¿Cuáles son las opciones para hacer cumplir esta orden? Y en segundo
14:10lugar, si me permite, dada la nueva explicación de la jueza sobre la orden, ¿existe ustedes
14:15reconocer un escenario donde el gobierno cumpla la orden y aún asà no regrese su defendimiento?
14:20La jueza tiene bastante poder para enforzar sus propias órdenes. Lo que está haciendo
14:27en este momento, y es correcto, es dar al gobierno básicamente una breve oportunidad para cumplir,
14:35mejor dicho, por las buenas. Pero no vamos a estar con brazos cruzados entre aquà y el
14:41miércoles. Definitivamente vamos a estar contestando diariamente cada actualización del gobierno y
14:49dando nuestro punto de vista a la jueza.
14:56De ahÃ, yo no creo que hay nadie en este paÃs que crea que Estados Unidos es impotente para
15:04traer a Kilmer de nuevo. Yo creo que todo el mundo sabe que está ahà en El Salvador,
15:10que está ahà en esta cárcel en El Salvador, porque Estados Unidos lo puso
15:14allá, y que prácticamente sacarlo de ahÃ, pedir que se lo devuelven a la embajada estadounidense
15:23en Santa Tecla para traerlo de nuevo, es algo realmente sencillo.
15:29Y si nosotros se lo pedimos al gobierno de El Salvador de buena fe, si nosotros hacemos
15:37esta solicitud, pues yo y yo creo que todo este paÃs entiende que el gobierno de El Salvador
15:45no tiene razón para no cumplir con esta solicitud.
15:50Y si, si el gobierno de El Salvador, si el gobierno de El Salvador
15:56no tiene suficiential status updates, ¿qué remedio es
16:01para asegurar que el gobierno de El Salvador
16:04se vuelve a volver?
16:06SÃ, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
16:11no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
16:41doesn't comply with her orders.
16:44Do you repeat what you said about, there's three things that they're being asked to do
17:06and every single day the judges expect them to do it?
17:10There's one thing that they're being asked to do. The one thing they're being asked to do is to take all reasonable steps to facilitate the return of Kilma Arbrego Garcia.
17:18In the meanwhile, they're asked to provide three pieces of information.
17:22One is, what is the current status of Mr. Arbrego Garcia? Where is he and under whose custody?
17:27Two, what steps have you taken to date?
17:30And then three, essentially, what's the plan? What steps are you going to take going forward?
17:35But the thing that the government was asked to do is to bring him back.
17:38And that's what they need to really get started on now. No more games.
17:41What's your faith on why he's saying this is impacted?
17:44It seems like a very straightforward thing.
17:46Is it just book dragging or do you really think that there's, is there some legal argument that they can possibly come up with?
17:53No, I think there's, again, I don't think there's anyone in this country who believes the government when they say, well, we don't, you know, we don't know how to do this.
18:02We can't, we can't figure out how to get someone out of a Salvadoran jail.
18:06They got Kristi Noem out of a Salvadoran jail, right? I mean, they can get Kilma Arbrego Garcia out of that same jail.
18:11I just want to ask you, what was your reaction when they didn't want to answer the question?
18:21I really was incredible when the government lawyer said that he couldn't answer the question so simple, where is Kilmer and under which custody is.
18:33So it's incredible, that he didn't even know that he could give to the court.
18:38And what it shows is that really the government is playing with a human being.
18:45They're taking it as a legal issue, a political issue.
18:49That's not a political issue, that's a human being.
18:52That's a very simple case, really simple.
18:55O sea, se equivocaron, cometieron un error, y ahora hay que rectificar este error y poner las cosas como estaban.
19:03El que está complicando todo esto y el que está haciendo un show a nivel nacional,
19:09tomando esto a la Corte Suprema, eso ha sido el gobierno desde el principio,
19:13y ahora ya es hora de que dejen de jugar.
19:16Sé que la familia no quiere hablar, porque usted ha hablado con ellos.
19:19¿Cuál es el sentido de ellos en ese momento?
19:21No puedo hablar por ellos en ese momento.
19:24El abogado del presidente Trump dijo que en un principio se pensó que Kilmer era antes de entender algo.
19:29Eso lo dijo en la Casa de la Corte.
19:30¿Ustedes sabÃan que al principio de la Casa Blanca, en ruedas de prensa, en tweets?
19:34Han dicho un montón de cosas desde la Casa Blanca, en ruedas de prensa, en tweets.
19:39Pero yo soy un abogado y en este caso en la Corte no han sometido una sola página de evidencia en su contra.
19:50All right.
19:53Let me tell you that.