Trump admin asks court not to unseal Abrego Garcia documents
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President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

The Trump administration has raised a complaint to a federal judge in California regarding the actions of an assistant judge, hoping to secure a different outcome in a controversial immigration matter.

In March, Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, appointed by Barack Obama, blocked the government from discontinuing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Venezuelans. This program was initiated by the Biden administration in 2021, enabling the immigrants, fleeing political turmoil, to legally stay and work in the U.S. for a specific duration.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the injunction from the lower court, giving the government the authority to revoke the legal protection of over 600,000 Venezuelan immigrants, who now face the risk of deportation.

But the plaintiffs in the case are not giving up by any means; litigation on the merits is still ongoing at the district court level.

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Earlier this month, the National TPS Alliance, a nonprofit group, submitted a 35-page motion for summary judgment in an effort to short-circuit the issues and return a quick victory in their favor. If successful, this would end the case before the lower court.

And, though a win on a motion for summary judgment would not render the high court’s stay inoperative — the justices stayed the injunction pending an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — Chen could fashion a permanent injunction or other relief.

To that end, the summary judgment effort also contains extra arguments for discovery, which has been an ongoing process throughout the litigation. The plaintiffs want information related to why the Trump administration canceled the TPS program and what was used to justify the policy change.

The plaintiffs also accused the government of failing to abide by their preexisting discovery obligations.

In short, discovery has become an intense sideline skirmish in the litigation over the past two weeks. Chen, in turn, assigned U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim to oversee the discovery process going forward; magistrate judges are used by district judges to assist with administrative tasks, as needed, and have the same jurisdiction as the court itself. The magistrate judge often handles discovery and can issue other minor orders, as well as reports and recommendations.

Last week, Kim issued an order granting in part a motion by the plaintiffs to compel production of certain documents. In ruling for the TPS Alliance, the judge said the government could not rely on the “deliberative process privilege” to withhold the documents in question.

From the court’s ruling, at length:

Here, the arguments in support of nondisclosure are particularly weak. Defendants have not explained specifically how disclosure of the documents in question “would cause embarrassment on the part of the author or give rise to confusion on the part of the public.” Instead, Defendants’ statements are general in nature. The only specific argument that Defendants make is that the issue in this case is “the subject of public controversy,” … [T]his argument could apply to any situation in which a party seeks documents otherwise protected by the deliberative process privilege, and that the subject matter is controversial shows that the information is serious and relevant.

Now, the Trump administration says Kim got it all wrong.

In an 8-page motion for relief, the government explains the present discovery battle in sharp detail.

“Specifically, Judge Kim ordered Defendants to produce all documents for which Defendants claim only the deliberative process privilege by June 13, 2025,” the motion notes. “Judge Kim reviewed 25 bellwether documents submitted by the parties in camera, concluding that ‘the documents designated under the deliberative process privilege qualify for that privilege’ and ‘Defendants provided declarations showing that the documents in question are deliberative in nature.’ Notwithstanding the propriety of the privilege, Judge Kim held that application of the deliberative process privilege was inappropriate in this case.”

The documents, the government explains, were found by the court to be “relevant to Plaintiffs’ claims of racial animus,” relevant to claims that the conduct is serious, and relevant to claims that the government’s conduct is at issue.

Still, the government claims, Kim’s order should be overturned.

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