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DOJ asserts presidential privilege over details about how Uganda was selected in Abrego Garcia deportation case
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/dmv-immigration/doj-asserts-presidential-privilege-over-details-about-how-uganda-was-selected-in-kilmar-abrego-garcia-deportation-case/65-fbb2b878-2466-4e4f-82aa-447c7f402639GREENBELT, Md. — The Trump administration went through unusual channels to select Uganda as the final destination should Kilmar Abrego Garcia be deported, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified Friday.
John Schultz, deputy assistant director for removal management at ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division, said typically when ICE seeks to deport an individual to a country other than the one they’re from – known as a third-country removal – the agency will reach out to the State Department to make the selection. But in Abrego Garcia’s case, Schultz said, he was told the administration had selected the African nation of Uganda in a phone call with a staff member of the Homeland Security Council (HSC).
The HSC exists within the Executive Office of the President in the White House and is made up of members from a number of Cabinet-level agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Schultz said he could only remember one or two times in his 20-year career with ICE In which he’d been contacted by the HSC about a third-country designation.
Schultz was called to testify Friday in an evidentiary hearing about efforts to deport Abrego Garcia and his ongoing detention. Sascha Rand, an attorney representing Abrego Garcia, attempted to elicit further details about the call with HSC – but was unable to after the Justice Department asserted presidential communications privilege over the contents of that call. The privilege shields the president, senior advisers and their staffs from being forced to divulge details about confidential communications relating to presidential decision-making.
John Schultz, deputy assistant director for removal management at ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division, said typically when ICE seeks to deport an individual to a country other than the one they’re from – known as a third-country removal – the agency will reach out to the State Department to make the selection. But in Abrego Garcia’s case, Schultz said, he was told the administration had selected the African nation of Uganda in a phone call with a staff member of the Homeland Security Council (HSC).
The HSC exists within the Executive Office of the President in the White House and is made up of members from a number of Cabinet-level agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Schultz said he could only remember one or two times in his 20-year career with ICE In which he’d been contacted by the HSC about a third-country designation.
Schultz was called to testify Friday in an evidentiary hearing about efforts to deport Abrego Garcia and his ongoing detention. Sascha Rand, an attorney representing Abrego Garcia, attempted to elicit further details about the call with HSC – but was unable to after the Justice Department asserted presidential communications privilege over the contents of that call. The privilege shields the president, senior advisers and their staffs from being forced to divulge details about confidential communications relating to presidential decision-making.
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