A lot has happened. Here are some of the things. This is the TPM Morning Memo.
Of his own free will And Now for next
In a dramatic series of sudden developments, the Trump administration has taken extraordinary steps to try to concerning– arrest Kilmar Abrego Garcia hours after his court-ordered release, but a federal judge intervened and blocked the move.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland today issued a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from returning Abrego Garcia to custody after ordering his release yesterday. His emergency order came after ICE ordered Abrego Garcia to report to its Baltimore field office at 8 a.m. ET today. Fearing that Abrego Garcia would be arrested again when he showed up at ICE offices, his lawyers filed an emergency motion overnight imploring Xinis to intervene.
All of this unfolded just hours after Abrego Garcia was released from ICE detention on Xinis’ orders.
The highly unusual series of last-minute events was punctuated by a remarkably cynical move by a Baltimore immigration judge, an executive branch official.
But first, some context: The basis for Xinis’ order to release Abrego Garcia was that ICE had never issued a deportation order against him — which is itself an extraordinary development because his wrongful deportation in March to El Salvador and his subsequent detention since his return to the United States relied entirely on the supposed issuance of a deportation order in 2019.
After Xinis ruled Thursday morning that no such deportation order existed, Philip P. Taylor, the acting regional deputy chief immigration judge in Baltimore, hastily issued a new order around 7 p.m. ET that purported to correct the “Scrivener error” in ICE’s records on Abrego Garcia and retroactively create a deportation order. Taylor’s order was comically captioned: “Immigration Court’s Sua Sponte Order Correcting Scrivener’s Error.”
Taylor’s sudden intervention is procedurally flawed in many ways, but that hasn’t stopped him from purporting to make a number of “corrections” to the 2019 Abrego Garcia case record, brushing it all aside: “These corrections are hereby issued nunc pro tunc to the written decision and order of the Immigration Court dated October 10, 2019.”
In her emergency order this morning, Judge Xinis raised an eyebrow so aggressively she could have pulled a muscle:
The ICE monitoring order also states that Abrego Garcia was “deported” on October 10, 2019, although no such order was issued on that date. Instead, ICE’s monitoring order appears to rely on an “order” issued last night by Immigration Judge Phillip Taylor. The Court does not comment here on this new “order”. But the Court notes that this “order” was issued nunc pro tunc, effective October 10, 2019.
It was clear a few months ago that Abrego Garcia was being punished by the Trump administration for having the temerity to challenge his wrongful deportation to El Salvador, in violation of an order from another immigration judge. Abrego Garcia’s illegal incarceration in El Salvador, his return to the United States on criminal charges, and his subsequent detention by ICE were among the most egregious rule of law violations of the Trump II presidency.
On top of that, the Trump administration has repeatedly defied Xinis’ orders in the Abrego Garcia cases, a fact not lost on Xinis herself, who writes in her emergency order:
[T]The public remains keenly interested in ensuring that government agencies comply with court orders, particularly those necessary to protect individual liberties. … For the public to have confidence in the orderly administration of justice, the Court’s narrowly crafted remedy cannot be upended so quickly and easily without further briefing and review.
The matrix of orders currently in place by Xinis should in theory protect Abrego Garcia from immediate detention and deportation – but so far the Trump administration has demonstrated a sadistic willingness to do anything to torment him, including violating Xinis’ orders.
The Punishment: Letitia James Edition
Last Thursday, Trump’s DOJ failed to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on trumped-up mortgage fraud charges when a federal grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, returned an erroneous bill. So yesterday, they took the case to a new grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia – and got the same result. With each effort, James’ vindictive accusation grows stronger.
False forgiveness alert
President Trump reportedly pardoned former Mesa County, Colorado, employee Tina Peters, currently imprisoned for her. State conviction for tampering with voting machines in an attempt to prove the Big Lie of 2020. Peters was never federally charged and her state conviction is beyond the reach of a presidential pardon. I could pardon Peters for the state’s charges and have the same effect.
2026 Ephemeral
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell – a Big Lie devotee – is launching a 2026 bid for Minnesota governor.
Indiana rejects Trump’s redistricting plan
Enough Indiana Republican senators resisted White House pleas to block the GOP-friendly mid-decade redistricting plan, which would have added a few more seats to the Republican column.
Excellent reading
The WSJ published a gripping story about opposition leader María Corina Machado’s flight from Venezuela this week to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. At one point, she was lost and adrift at night in the Gulf of Venezuela before being found by an extraction team in a mission dubbed Operation Golden Dynamite. If you know, you know.
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