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Attorneys seek to pause all deadlines in the case of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia amid the government shutdown.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Deparmtent asked for a “stay of all deadlines” Wednesday in the case of a Maryland father who’s now seeking asylum in the U.S. after being wrongfully deported earlier this year by the Trump administration.
The request comes as federal attorneys across the country file similar stays amid a government shutdown triggered by the U.S. Senate’s failure to reach an agreement on health care subsidies.
A stay would potentially delay a hearing scheduled for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who’s currently detained at a facility in Pennsylvania. According to court documents, Abrego Garcia doesn’t consent to the delay.
The filing indicates that attorneys in the Justice Departments’s Civil Division are forbidden from working during the shutdown even on a voluntary basis.
The attorneys are also asking that once money is restored for the case to proceed, the current deadlines be extended “commensurate with the duration of the lapse in appropriations.”
The Prince George’s County man’s saga began when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, despite having a judge’s permission to remain in the U.S.
Since his return to the U.S., Abrego Garcia has been shuttled from one detention to another as the Department of Homeland Security seeks to have him deported.
Before being moved to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, Abrego Garcia was being held at Farmville Detention Center in Virginia.
In addition to the civil case confronting him in D.C., Abrego Garcia is awaiting a criminal trial over human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia and his legal team have rejected a number of deportation destinations selected by prosecutors – along with Latin American sites, prosecutors have floated African ones.
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