Responding to the claim that the civil case is now moot due to his return, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers reminded the Obama appointee that she “still retains jurisdiction to find contempt and impose sanctions.”

They called the government’s claim that it has complied with her order “pure farce,” writing:

The Government flouted rather than followed the orders of this Court and the United States Supreme Court. Instead of facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return, for the past two months Defendants have engaged in an elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage Abrego Garcia. In its latest act of contempt, the Government arranged for Abrego Garcia’s return, not to Maryland in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” . . . but rather to Tennessee so that he could be charged with a crime in a case that the Government only developed while it was under threat of sanctions.

Farcical is a good summary of this case and the administration’s broader immigration stance. The description pairs well with U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s recent nod to Franz Kafka’s “The Trial,” in comparing the novel’s absurd legal ordeal to the administration’s summary removals of scores of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s mega-prison known for human rights abuses. (Litigation is pending separately in that case in Washington, D.C., as lawyers try to secure the immigrants’ return. That case also includes an attempt to hold the administration accountable for contempt, which is pending separately on the government’s appeal in D.C.’s federal appeals court.)

Urging Xinis to keep the civil case alive, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the government’s “wanton disregard for the judicial branch has left a stain on the Constitution” and that if there’s “any hope of removing that stain, it must start by shining a light on the improper actions of the Government in this tragic affair and imposing meaningful remedies.”

Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia’s criminal case is getting started in Tennessee, where he’s charged with illegally transporting undocumented immigrants. It’s an understatement to say the new case will be highly scrutinized, given how it came about in an apparent attempt by the administration to save face. That doesn’t mean federal prosecutors won’t be able to secure a conviction; they may be even more motivated to do so, given the political stakes.

On that note, ABC News reported, citing unnamed sources, that the decision to pursue the criminal case led high-ranking Tennessee prosecutor Ben Schrader to resign due to “concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons.” Asked about the reason for his resignation, Schrader declined to comment to NBC News. If his resignation is connected to the criminal case against Abrego Garcia, then the administration’s political posturing through the Justice Department has led to the loss of yet another career prosecutor — one of this administration’s sordid legacies, as exemplified by the Eric Adams dismissal debacle earlier this year.