{"id":144256,"date":"2026-02-17T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/17\/trump-administration-learns-to-its-dismay-it-cannot-alter-substantive-rights\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:21:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:21:42","slug":"trump-administration-learns-to-its-dismay-it-cannot-alter-substantive-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/17\/trump-administration-learns-to-its-dismay-it-cannot-alter-substantive-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Learns To Its Dismay It \u2018Cannot Alter Substantive Rights\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today a federal court rejected the \u201clet\u2019s just ignore the last year\u201d theory advanced by the government in the saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a>. Abrego Garcia is, of course, the man the Trump administration famously and wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran slave labor camp and then spent the better part of a year trying to punish for embarrassing them by surviving.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Abrego Garcia cannot be detained again by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, because the statutory 90-day removal period that would allow ICE to hold him expired \u201clong ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although all parties agreed to a retroactive correction of the immigration record, Judge Xinis made clear that paperwork time travel doesn\u2019t revive expired detention authority. \u201cThe \u2018removal period\u2019 for which Abrego Garcia\u2019s detention had been compelled was over long ago,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespondents\u2019 reading would also conveniently erase this last year of Abrego Garcia\u2019s Detention,\u201d she wrote, adding that the Trump administration \u201ccannot alter substantive rights or rewrite history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since August 2025, ICE has floated what Judge Xinis described as \u201cphantom removals to three (maybe four) African countries,\u201d that were \u201cempty threats\u201d with \u201cno real chance of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the one country that has<\/em> consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia and that he is willing to go to (Costa Rica), has been deliberately ignored. Which tells you the Trump administration\u2019s dogged pursuit of Abrego Garcia is not about removal, but about the vindictive, cruel desire to make an example of him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn her decision today, she recognized that if the government were truly trying to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States, they would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today,\u201d Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garica said. \u201cWe hope the government does not appeal this order, and instead finally comes to the table in good faith to work out the details of a removal plan to Costa Rica.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hope may be optimistic. But Judge Xinis has now made it very clear that the government doesn\u2019t get to keep a man in legal limbo forever just to save face.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Trump Administration Learns To Its Dismay It \u2018Cannot Alter Substantive Rights\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKilmar Abrego Garcia Photo by: Graeme Sloan\/Bloomberg via Getty Images\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today a federal court rejected the \u201clet\u2019s just ignore the last year\u201d theory advanced by the government in the saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a>. Abrego Garcia is, of course, the man the Trump administration famously and wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran slave labor camp and then spent the better part of a year trying to punish for embarrassing them by surviving.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Abrego Garcia cannot be detained again by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, because the statutory 90-day removal period that would allow ICE to hold him expired \u201clong ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although all parties agreed to a retroactive correction of the immigration record, Judge Xinis made clear that paperwork time travel doesn\u2019t revive expired detention authority. \u201cThe \u2018removal period\u2019 for which Abrego Garcia\u2019s detention had been compelled was over long ago,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespondents\u2019 reading would also conveniently erase this last year of Abrego Garcia\u2019s Detention,\u201d she wrote, adding that the Trump administration \u201ccannot alter substantive rights or rewrite history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since August 2025, ICE has floated what Judge Xinis described as \u201cphantom removals to three (maybe four) African countries,\u201d that were \u201cempty threats\u201d with \u201cno real chance of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the one country that has<\/em> consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia and that he is willing to go to (Costa Rica), has been deliberately ignored. Which tells you the Trump administration\u2019s dogged pursuit of Abrego Garcia is not about removal, but about the vindictive, cruel desire to make an example of him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn her decision today, she recognized that if the government were truly trying to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States, they would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today,\u201d Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garica said. \u201cWe hope the government does not appeal this order, and instead finally comes to the table in good faith to work out the details of a removal plan to Costa Rica.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hope may be optimistic. But Judge Xinis has now made it very clear that the government doesn\u2019t get to keep a man in legal limbo forever just to save face.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today a federal court rejected the \u201clet\u2019s just ignore the last year\u201d theory advanced by the government in the saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia is, of course, the man the Trump administration famously and wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran slave labor camp and then spent the better part of a year trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-b8u9Dz.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}