00:00Dale, they're coming.
00:02Dale, they're coming.
00:06We went down to the White House and we took back what we stole from the land.
00:14We did back, took back our day to see.
00:19Took back all your hands to the land.
00:23We went down to the White House and we took back what we stole from the land.
00:29Les, where are you?
00:30We're here.
00:31All right.
00:38Keep, please, come on, man.
00:40Keep.
00:40I'm coming.
00:41I'm coming.
00:41I'm bringing your arms.
00:59Good afternoon.
01:06My name is Simon Sandoval-Motionberg with the law firm of Murray Osorio.
01:12This afternoon we were back in front of Judge Zinnis on remand from the United States Supreme
01:17Court, which last night issued a unanimous 9-0 decision affirming the order of the district
01:25judge that they need to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States
01:32and give him all of the due process that he should have had before he was illegally deported
01:38and that they need to do that as quickly as possible and that they need to share with
01:44the court information about what they're doing.
01:47After the Supreme Court issued that order, the district judge issued a further order clarifying
01:55her ruling and explaining that the government needs to take all steps reasonable to facilitate
02:03the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia to the United States and that in the meanwhile, it needs
02:08to provide the court with information, specifically three pieces of information.
02:13One, where is Mr. Abrego Garcia right now?
02:17What is his custodial status?
02:20Two, what has the government done so far to try to bring him back?
02:26There were several days when the court's order was in effect prior to the Supreme Court entering
02:32a stay and now it's been more than 12 hours since the Supreme Court lifted the stay.
02:39What has the government done during that time to bring him back?
02:45And then three, what is the government planning to do to carry out the court's order, which
02:52is again to take all reasonable steps to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia to the United
02:58States as quickly as possible?
03:01The government refused to provide any of those pieces of information that the judge ordered them
03:07to provide.
03:09Not only the information about what future steps they're planning to take, they even refused
03:15to answer the question about what they've done so far.
03:18And they even refused to answer the question about where Kilmer Abrego Garcia is today.
03:24For the second time in this case, they sent a lawyer into court who had no answers.
03:31He explained that his clients, the government, have chosen not to give him any information,
03:36not to give him any evidence.
03:39And the district judge appropriately was not willing to accept their vague and unsubstantiated
03:49assertions that, don't worry judge, we'll take care of this all in due course.
03:56The government attorney did say that they intend to comply with the order and bring him back.
04:02That's the bare minimum.
04:03They should have done that already.
04:04They've had plenty of time between the Supreme Court's order early yesterday evening and
04:09now.
04:10He should be here in the United States.
04:11It's a five hour flight.
04:15So the judge ordered that they provide detailed status updates on a daily basis, including as
04:23soon as tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
04:26She's going to give our legal team the opportunity to respond to each one of those.
04:34We are also, as plaintiff's counsel, we are not going to accept the government's generic
04:39and unsubstantiated assertions that they're working on this, that they're considering it,
04:44that they're debating it, that they're taking steps.
04:46We are also going to be insisting that they provide specific concrete details to the court,
04:51as well as specific names of specific individuals who actually know what is going on, instead
04:58of declarations or pleading signed by lawyers who then come into court and say, I actually
05:03have no personal knowledge.
05:06And then we'll be back in court on Wednesday.
05:08Simon, what does the judge, what power does this judge have if, in fact, she doesn't get
05:15satisfactory answers from the judge?
05:18The judge has considerable power to enforce her orders.
05:22What can she do?
05:24We are going to trust that after today's very strong words from the judge, the government
05:35is going to provide a meaningful and detailed status update tomorrow, Saturday.
05:43But if they don't, we'll respond.
05:45And we'll tell the judge, you know, what relief we think she should order.
05:48Do you believe that when they say the U.S. government, you don't need to look at me
05:51like that, the U.S. government will comply with the order of the Supreme Court.
05:55How do you take that statement?
06:00The judge has, I'm grateful, I shouldn't need to be grateful that they're going to comply
06:06with an order of the United States Supreme Court.
06:08But we are grateful, at the very least, that they acknowledge that they're going to comply
06:10with the order of the United States Supreme Court.
06:13The judge is very appropriately requiring them to provide daily updates about the steps
06:19that they're taking in order to do that.
06:22And if those updates are either, A, not sufficiently detailed, or B, reflect that they're not moving
06:29with all due haste, we are going to be back in front of the judge requesting relief.
06:35What did you think of their disagreement with her about what the Supreme Court had actually ordered?
06:40I think the judge sort of appropriately shut that down very quickly by saying that the Supreme Court
06:47affirmed her order, asked for clarification on one verb, and she provided that clarification
06:54in her subsequent order yesterday evening.
06:59Sir, I'd like to know, how concerned are you that you've not been able to talk to your client,
07:03and what relief will you seek if you don't get the answer to what you seek?
07:08I can't get into details about what relief we're going to be seeking.
07:10It really does depend on what the government comes up with in their next filing.
07:15What I can say is that we're not going to be sitting back and sort of waiting to see
07:18what they have to say on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
07:24If they don't take this judge, this order, if they don't take today's order seriously,
07:27we'll respond seriously.
07:29Can I not ask for the court to immediately send Mr. Abrego Garcia back?
07:35Because this could potentially push things off all the way until next week.
07:41The court already ordered that last night.
07:44The court ordered the government to take all reasonable steps to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.
07:51So I didn't need to come into court today and ask the judge to order again what she already ordered last night.
07:56Now the question is, how are we going to know if the government is actually doing that?
08:00And that's what the judge put some very, very, very fine point on today.
08:05Simon, you've had cases where you said that ICE has actually gone and bent over backwards
08:11and bring people back who were deported illegally.
08:14How quickly were those cases carried out?
08:17Anything close to what's happening here?
08:20Yeah, there's no reason that this case needed to become a national issue.
08:25There's no reason that this case needed to go to the United States Supreme Court.
08:29And it's been the government that's done that at every step of the way.
08:32It's been the government that turned this into a national issue.
08:35It was the government who appealed the judge's original, very reasonable and modest order
08:40all the way up to the United States Supreme Court.
08:43And now it's the government who is coming into court saying,
08:48yes, judge, we blew off your first deadline.
08:50We haven't yet taken any steps or we're not prepared to show you what steps we've taken to comply with your order.
08:57Wrongful deportations happen from time to time.
09:02And when the government realizes that they've done that, they facilitate the return.
09:07They have a policy about it.
09:09Courts have ordered it all up and down the United States for years.
09:14We've provided several examples in our briefing.
09:16And the Supreme Court didn't have any issue whatsoever.
09:21Nine to zero unanimously agreed that the district judge's order that they facilitate his return was absolutely proper,
09:31is in effect today, right now.
09:33There was one verb that they weren't sure what it meant.
09:35They asked her to clarify it and she didn't.
09:37The Supreme Court has requested just an update on how anybody's doing.
09:42They weren't even able to provide that today.
09:45Your response to it?
09:46Yeah, that was the most shocking thing of all,
09:48that the attorney for the government wasn't even prepared to answer the question,
09:52where is Kilmer Abrego today and what is his custodial status?
09:56I was very dismayed and disheartened by the fact that they wouldn't answer such a straightforward question.
10:03And your position is you know nothing about his current state?
10:07No, neither we nor the family have been able to make any contact with him.
10:11This is one of the principal human rights violations that occurs in that facility,
10:15is that inmates and detainees in that facility are held incommunicado.
10:21Simon, how disappointing is it that the government is pushing back and fighting this effort that you guys are trying to bring it back to the country?
10:28I had really hoped that after a 9-0 loss at the United States Supreme Court,
10:33they would essentially say, all right, we get it and start acting in good faith.
10:38I do have hope that now that they've seen that the district judge is not going to be taking this lightly,
10:48that they will start acting in good faith and that we're actually going to see a meaningful status report tomorrow
10:54that's going to detail meaningful activity taking place.
10:58But of course, if they don't, we'll be prepared to respond.
11:01Attorney, what if President Bukele says that there are charges against Salvador,
11:04would that mean that he wouldn't need to come back?
11:07I think it's preposterous that there be charges against him in El Salvador.
11:11He hasn't been in that country since the age of 16, about a decade ago.
11:14But in your reply, you noted that the Solicitor General was claiming that there may be reasons for El Salvador to hold him.
11:26The Solicitor General, in their last brief to the United States Supreme Court,
11:30sort of made a vague, kind of waved their hands and said,
11:33well, we might have some information that El Salvador might have some reason that they want to hold him.
11:38What we responded is, essentially in keeping with what the judge said at the very start of the first hearing in this case last week,
11:47she started the first hearing in this case by saying,
11:49I'm going to decide this case based on the evidence in the record.
11:52And there's no evidence in the record of any criminality, gang ties, any of that stuff.
11:59I mean, at this point, I have to assume that if they had any of that evidence, they would have filed it.
12:03And that's essentially what the judge said today.
12:05Again, she reiterated, I'm going to assume, based on the fact that you haven't filed any evidence,
12:11that you have no evidence.
12:13Well, the judge, after all of the allegations of the Supreme Court of America,
12:19it was a clear decision, and that the judge just was correct.
12:21Sure, I will ask you, what the judge in the event were paid in this case?
12:25How many would have been administered today?
12:27Well, the judge did, after all of the case in the Supreme Court that happened,
12:29after all of the cases, which happened in a criminal decision,
12:31a department that happened, right?
12:33That now, when the case of the Supreme Court obeyed the Supreme Court of America
12:37to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego García to the United States,
12:42taking all the possible steps as soon as possible, as soon as possible.
12:48That was the mistake of the Supreme Court.
12:51In the Supreme Court, there was a word,
12:54which is the word, effectuar,
12:56which the Supreme Court said,
12:58well, we are not sure what the judge wanted to say when she said effectuar,
13:02and so this night, the night of ayer,
13:06put a new order explicating that effectuar means
13:11taking all the reasonable steps possible
13:14for Kilmar to return to the United States.
13:19Then the judge said,
13:21okay, then you also have to tell me three things.
13:25First, where is Kilmar and under which custody is.
13:29Second, what is what they have done until the date?
13:33Right, because they have already had a week,
13:36and during the half of this week, the order of the judge was in effect.
13:41What did they do during this time to effect my order?
13:46To make my order?
13:47To make my order?
13:48To make my order?
13:49And third, what is what they are going to do
13:52to be able to do?
13:54To make my order of the U.S.
13:55To make my order of the U.S.
13:56to make my order of the U.S.
13:57To make my order of the U.S.
13:59La jueza puso una fecha límite. Antes de la audiencia de hoy, Estados Unidos, el gobierno tenía que contestar esas tres preguntas. No lo hicieron.
14:12Entonces, la jueza puso una orden. Bueno, primero reafirmó su orden de que Estados Unidos tiene que traerlo de regreso tan pronto posible.
14:21Y segundo, ordenó que diariamente, incluso fin de semana, tienen que dar una actualización a la corte detallada y de una persona que tiene conocimiento personal, no un abogado, sino un oficial del gobierno, tiene que actualizar a la corte diariamente de qué es lo que se está haciendo.
14:43Va a haber otra audiencia el miércoles, pero entre aquí y miércoles, si nosotros no estamos conformes con lo que el gobierno está haciendo o con el nivel de detalle que el gobierno está dando sobre sus acciones, nosotros siempre podemos someter algo por escrito a la corte.
15:02Abogado, ¿qué opciones tiene la jueza si el gobierno no le da esta información que ella solicitó? ¿Cuáles son las opciones para hacer cumplir esta orden?
15:11Y en segundo lugar, si me permite, dada la nueva explicación de la jueza sobre la orden, ¿existe usted, reconoce, un escenario donde el gobierno cumpla la orden y aún así no regrese su defendido?
15:21La jueza tiene bastante poder para enforzar sus propias órdenes.
15:28Lo que está haciendo en este momento, y es correcto, es dar al gobierno básicamente una breve oportunidad para cumplir, mejor dicho, por las buenas.
15:38Pero no vamos a estar con brazos cruzados entre aquí y el miércoles, definitivamente vamos a estar contestando diariamente cada actualización del gobierno y dando nuestro punto de vista a la jueza.
15:53De ahí, yo no creo que hay nadie en este país que crea que Estados Unidos es impotente para traer a Kilmer de nuevo.
16:08Yo creo que todo el mundo sabe que está ahí en El Salvador, que está ahí en esta cárcel en El Salvador, porque Estados Unidos lo puso allá.
16:15Y que prácticamente sacarlo de ahí, pedir que se lo devuelven a la embajada estadounidense en Santa Tecla para traerlo de nuevo, es algo realmente sencillo.
16:28Y si nosotros se lo pedimos al gobierno de El Salvador de buena fe, si nosotros hacemos esta solicitud, pues yo y yo creo que todo este país entiende que el gobierno de El Salvador no tiene razón para no cumplir con esa solicitud.
16:50Y si el gobierno de El Salvador no tiene ningún tipo de estatus updates, ¿cuál remedio es la que nos da remunerar a la quinta?
17:03Que Mr. Rubén García va a ser sentado de vuelta?
17:07No, no, no, no.
17:10I can't get into right now, you know, sort of if-then kind of scenarios about remedies, but you know, I mean, we've been working with the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart-Sullivan.
17:19They've assigned, I think, more than a dozen attorneys to this case.
17:24They've done a fantastic job of briefing this case.
17:28The Supreme Court asked us to file a brief on Tuesday at 5.
17:32We filed it by Monday at 5, and we're going to leave no stone unturned in asking the judge
17:40for the appropriate remedies if the government doesn't comply with her orders.
17:49Do you repeat what you said about there's three things that they're being asked to do,
18:07and every single day the judges expect them to do it?
18:11There's one thing that they're being asked to do.
18:13The one thing they're being asked to do is to take all reasonable steps to facilitate
18:17the return of Kilmer Abrego-Garcia.
18:19In the meanwhile, they're asked to provide three pieces of information.
18:23One is, what is the current status of Mr. Abrego-Garcia?
18:26Where is he and under whose custody?
18:28Two, what steps have you taken to date?
18:31And then three, essentially, what's the plan?
18:33What steps are you going to take going forward?
18:36But the thing that the government was asked to do was to bring him back, and that's what
18:39they need to really get started on now.
18:41No more games.
18:42What's your take on why he's saying, well, this is in fact, it seems like a very straightforward
18:46thing.
18:47Is it just book dragging, or do you really think that there's, is there some legal argument
18:52that they can possibly come up with?
18:54No.
18:55I think there's, again, I don't think there's anyone in this country who believes the government
19:01when they say, well, we don't, you know, we don't know how to do this.
19:03We can't, we can't figure out how to get someone out of a Salvadoran jail.
19:07They got Kristi Noem out of a Salvadoran jail, right?
19:09I mean, they can get Kilmer Abrego Garcia out of that same jail.
19:14I just want to ask you, what was your reaction when they didn't want to answer, where did
19:21you find him?
19:23I really was incredible when the judge of the government said that he couldn't answer the
19:29question so simple, where is Kilmer and under which custody is.
19:33It's incredible that he couldn't even give that data he could give to the court.
19:39And what it demonstrates is that, really, the government is playing with a human life.
19:46They're taking it as a legal issue, a political issue.
19:49That's not a political issue, that's a human issue.
19:52That's a very simple case.
19:54That's a very simple case.
19:56They made a mistake.
19:58They made a mistake.
20:00They made a mistake.
20:01They made a mistake.
20:02And they made a mistake.
20:03They made every day.
20:04And they told themselves that they were doing that in the final step.
20:05And now, they have to do this.
20:06They have to deal with the dilemma.
20:07And now they have to do this.
20:08They have to do this.
20:09I'm sorry, why would you take this.
20:10But we didn't do that.
20:11Supreme Court, that has been the government from the beginning, and now it's time to stop
20:16playing.
20:17I know that the family doesn't want to talk about it, but you have talked about them.
20:20What is the sense that they are in this moment?
20:22I can't talk about them in this moment.
20:25The President Trump said that at the beginning, he thought that he was a way to understand
20:30that.
20:31Do you know that at the beginning, he said that he was a way to understand that?
20:34They've said a lot of things, from the Casa Blanca, from the press, in tweets, but
20:41I'm an advocate, and in this case, in the court, they've not submitted a single page of evidence
20:48in their contra.
20:49All right, thank you.
20:54Let me tell you that.
20:59Let me tell you that.
21:02Let me tell you.
21:03Let me tell you.
21:05Let me tell you.
21:07Let me tell you.
21:08Let me tell you.
21:10let me tell you.
21:38You know it, right?
21:39Yes.
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