During a three-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis appeared incredulous over the administration’s lack of a definite plan for deporting Abrego after a Justice Department attorney said that was the plan.

District Judge Paula Xinis said getting answers out of the government has been like “nailing Jell-O to a wall.”

The plan directly contradicted the White House, which last month described as “fake news” reports of plans to re-deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

A Justice Department attorney told a federal judge during a hearing Monday in Maryland that the government's "plan at this stage" is to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a third country if he is released on bond by a judge in Tennessee,

The U.S. government intends to initiate deportation proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia should he be released from jail before standing trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee, a Justice Department attorney told a federal judge Monday.

The Justice Department’s “current plan” is to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia again — not to El Salvador — if he is freed from federal custody as he awaits trial in Tennessee, a U.S. government attorney told a court Tuesday.