Overview

• U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis denied the Justice Department’s request to pause the Maryland case because of the shutdown and kept in place her bar on removing Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the continental United States.
• Xinis ordered the government to file by Wednesday evidence of efforts to deport him to Eswatini and to produce on Friday a witness with firsthand knowledge to testify under oath about those plans.
• Government lawyers cited furloughs, but the judge said she was duty bound to proceed and criticized the lack of specifics about outreach to Eswatini or a removal timeline.
• Separately in Tennessee, Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. found a reasonable likelihood of vindictiveness in the human‑smuggling prosecution, authorized discovery, and set a status hearing for Oct. 10 in Nashville.
• Abrego Garcia remains in ICE custody at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania after an immigration judge rejected his bid to reopen his 2019 asylum case, as ICE explores third‑country removal options including Eswatini or Uganda.