A judge in the United States has slammed the Trump administration for doing "nothing" to facilitate the return of a man it wrongly deported to El Salvador last month.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has now spent exactly one month in a notorious El Salvador prison, as a legal stand-off over his release and return heats up.
The Supreme Court last week upheld an order for the government to "facilitate" his release from custody in El Salvador and return to the United States.
Federal Judge Paula Xinis then ordered Trump administration officials to provide regular updates on the steps they'd taken to facilitate his return, but today admonished them for the lack of progress.
"To date, nothing has been done. I've also asked for daily briefings and I've gotten very little information of value," she said.
"The bottom line is it was a very simple directive. My question … is what have you done? I've gotten nothing, I've gotten no real response."
She's now ordered the government to provide documents and depose four officials within a tight time-frame.
"We have to give process to both sides. But we are going to move. There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding," she warned.
'That is a constitutional crisis'
Protesters gathered outside the court in Maryland in a case that has galvanised migrant communities across the United States.
It has touched a nerve with so many people because it felt like something that could happen to anyone, says Lucha Bright with the Refuse Fascism coalition.
"It's horrific when people think about what it means that somebody with no criminal record and a wife and kids … could just be disappeared this way," she said.
"What's different about this and what's capturing the attention, rightly so, of millions of people is that there is a blatant breaking of the rule of law here. There is a defying of court orders happening."
Ms Bright said the Trump administration has defied the Supreme Court and the Federal Court.
"That is a constitutional crisis and that is really a question posed in front of everybody right now, of what are we going to accept and what kind of people are we going to be if we allow this to continue?" she said.
Alex Vazquez from advocacy group CASA told the ABC the community support showed how deep the fear was in some communities.
"I think there's a lot of fear, a lot of worry in terms of, if someone like Kilmar can get detained and deported the way he did, then anyone can," he said.
"I think Kilmar's story is a story that resonates with so many immigrants across this country.
"To be ripped apart in the manner he was ripped apart from his family and then wrongfully deported to El Salvador is just unjust, and in this country we're all about ensuring that everybody has due process and that's not what happened here."
How Mr Abrego Garcia ended up in El Salvador
Mr Abrego Garcia was last month sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador, despite a 2019 court order that granted him protection from being returned to his home country because of fears he would face persecution from local gangs.
The Trump administration insists Mr Abrego Garcia is a member of the violent Venezuelan MS-13 gang, but his lawyers and family say he has no gang affiliations.
He had been living with his wife and three children in Maryland and working as a sheet metal apprentice under a valid work permit and had no criminal record in the US.
Trump administration officials have admitted they made an "administrative error" in deporting the Maryland father there but have since said they're powerless to bring him back.
On Friday, District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to provide her with daily updates on Mr Abrego Garcia's whereabouts, the steps it had already taken to secure his return and the steps it planned to take.
On Saturday, a State Department official merely confirmed he is "alive and secure" and "detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador".
The Trump administration's defiance ramped up on Monday during a White House visit by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the courts had no right to interfere in foreign policy issues while Attorney-General Pam Bondi said it was up to El Salvador's president to decide if he wanted to deport Mr Abrego Garcia.
Nayib Bukele, who's described himself as "the world's coolest dictator", laughed off the idea of returning the man to the US as "preposterous".
"How can I return him today?" he asked.
"I smuggle him into the United States? I'm not going to do it … I don't have the power to return him to the United States."
The case has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Last month, immigration officials deported scores of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, using the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
They are among more than 200 deportees incarcerated in the country's notorious CECOT mega-prison, which has been the centre of allegations of torture, abuse and lack of medical care.
The Trump administration says they are members of Venezuelan gangs but advocates and family members say innocent men were swept up in the mass deportation operation.
A New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or gang-links.
The investigation — which examined court documents, media reports, interviews with prosecutors and law enforcement officials in multiple jurisdictions — found only a few of the detainees might have had any connection to Tren de Aragua, which the president has designated as a "foreign terrorist organisation".
